
•' 0*" '^o 











' '^^^.♦^ .*, 
















•p^ .* 





5°. 











'^-^ • 








^o 



.^"^ ..<»"«^.'^^ 







,^^ 






'^^ 























v*^^ 














• <1 



,* 






^^'^v^V 






*. ^*'' »*aV/5;'- <^^ a* ♦'«ai3ih'.''** 





'^^i 



V--"?'\<V'' ^^'-'^^^'.G*'' 'V*'-^*V* 







*= 















ir 



10 Longitude 



Longitude 



East 10' from 



Greei 



OUR BEGINNINGS 

IN 

EUROPE and AMERICA 

HOW CIVILIZATION GREW 
IN THE OLD WORLD 
AND CAME TO THE NEW 



BY 

SMITH BURNHAM, A. M. 

Head of the Department of History in the State 
Normal School, West Chester, Pennsylvania 



WITH 

ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 



THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 

Chicago 



Philadelphia 






Copyright 1918 by 
The John C. Winston Co« 



All Rights Reserved 



MAY -6 1918 

0)CI.A497174 



PREFACE 

The history of the United States is a branch of the history 
of the world. Life in America is a transplanted European 
life. Its development here has been largely determined 
by new world conditions, but its origins were in Europe or 
even in that older world about the eastern end of the 
Mediterranean Sea. As civiHzation has been handed on 
from race to race during the ages, each people has added 
its own peculiar contribution to it. Primitive men who 
lived before the dawn of history, the earliest civihzed nations 
of the Old East, the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, 
the early Teutons, and all the European nations whose sons 
had a hand in colonizing America were the makers of our 
civilization. Our life today cannot be fully understood 
without adding to a clear knowledge of its growth in America 
an appreciation of our debt to each of the races who were 
our cultural ancestors. 

This book is an attempt to tell in a plain and simple way 
the story of the growth of our civilization from its earliest 
beginnings in prehistoric times, to point out the contribu- 
tion to it made in turn by each of the great peoples of the 
Old World, and to show hovv in the fullness of time it was 
transferred from Europe to America. The sub-title of the 
book — How Civilization Grew in the Old World and Came 
to the New — exactly expresses its theme. 

The epoch-making Report of the Committee of Eight 
to the American Historical Association upon The Study of 
History in the Elementary Schools recommends for the 
sixth grade the study of ''those features of ancient and 
mediaeval life which explain either important elements of 

(iii) 



iv PREFACE 

our civilization or show how the movement for discovery 
and colonization originated." The same report suggests 
that in the seventh grade 'Hhe settlement and growth of 
the colonies be taken up with enough of the European back- 
ground to explain events in America having their causes in 
England or Europe." The author of this book aims to 
follow these recommendations. He does not, however, 
adhere closely in all details to the syllabus offered in the 
report if by departing from it the general purpose of the 
book can be more fully reaHzed. He believes that this 
book provides a text for the sixth grade and for part of the 
work suggested for the seventh grade in harmony with the 
spirit and purpose of the Committee of Eight. 

Just a few words to those who may study and teach this 
book. Parrot-like memorizing is the most serious fault in 
elementary history teaching. The poorest use to make of 
any textbook is to commit it to memory. The first thing 
to do m studying a history lesson is to read it. Reading is 
thinking the author's thought after him. To read intelli- 
gently one must understand the words and phrases in which 
the thought is expressed. In assigning the lesson the teacher 
may often help the pupils to grasp the thought of the printed 
page by explaining and illustrating the meaning of any 
words or statements that the children cannot get for them- 
selves. Before the recitation begins, the children should 
be encouraged to ask the teacher the meaning of any words 
or expressions in the lesson which they did not fully under- 
stand when they studied it. It is hoped that the maps and 
numerous pictures in this book will also help to make its 
meaning clear. The correct pronunciation of the hard 
names is given in the index. 

Every textbook in history ought to be supplemented with 
stories and explanations by the teacher and by collateral 
or illustrative reading by the pupils.. To make such supple- 
mentary work easier, short lists of selected books for the 



PREFACE V 

teacher and for the children are printed at the close of each 
chapter. 

When a lesson has been read and supplemented in these 
ways as far as time and circumstances permit, the next 
thing to do is to think about it. Here is the great oppor- 
tunity of the teacher through skillful questioning to stimulate 
and guide the thinking of the children. Many problems 
of inference, of discrimination, of comparison, and of judg- 
ment arise naturally out of the text. It is believed that 
the questions and suggestions inserted at the end of each 
chapter will prove useful in this connection. 

When the teacher and the pupils thinking together have 
decided what facts in the lesson are really vital and worth 
remembering, those facts should be learned. But be sure 
to ''let memorizing be a by-product of thinking, not a 
substitute for it." 

The study of history has many values. The knowledge 
of the past which it supplies helps us to understand the 
world in which we live. The arts, the institutions, and the 
ideas of our time can never be really understood or fully 
appreciated until we know something of their origin and 
growth. But history does far more than add to the sum 
total of our knowledge. It brings before us the struggling, 
upward striving men and women of our race. It quickens 
and broadens our sympathies with all men everywhere. It 
helps us to know ourselves and our work in th^ world. Best 
of all it inspires us to do that work. May the children who 
read this book gather a full measure of these values from it. 

The author is grateful to many friends for helpful sug- 
gestions and criticism during the preparation of this book. 
He is under special obHgation for such assistance to Professor 
C. H. Fisher of the State Normal School at West Chester, 
Pennsylvania, to Dr. J. L. Barnard, Professor of History 
in the School of Pedagogy, Philadelphia, and to Rabbi 
Joseph Krauskopf of Philadelphia. , Smith Burnham. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER ^^^^ 

I. Our Homes in the Old World 1 

Where Americans Came From 1 

Why Europeans Came to America 3 

How Our Ancestors Crossed the Atlantic 5 

What Americans Brought from the Old World 6 

II. What the Earliest Men Did for Us 8 

The Earliest Men 8 

The Food of the Earhest Men 10 

How Wild Animals and Plants were Tamed 11 

The First Shelter and Clothing 14 

Early Weapons, Tools, and Utensils ^. ■ ■ lo 

Some Other Important Beginnmgs Made by Early 

Men 21 

III. Our Debt to the Earliest Civilized Peoples 26 

Where the First Civilized People Lived 26 

The First Farmers 29 

The Beginnings of Manufacturing 30 

The Growth of Trade and Commerce 31 

Early Social Life 34 

The First Governments 36 

The Earhest Laws " 38 

The Invention of the Art of Writmg 38 

The Literature and Science of Egypt and Babylonia 40 

The Palaces and Temples of the Ancient World 42 

Early Rehgious Beliefs 44 

Our Special Debt to the Hebrews 4b 

IV. The Gifts of the Greeks to Us 50 

The Home of the Greeks 50 

How the Greeks Lived 52 

The Spartans 54 

The Athenians • • 55 

How the Greeks Saved Freedom for the World 57 

The Beautiful Things which the Greeks Made 62 

The Writings of the Greeks /•,••,,;• ij SI 

How the Greeks Became the Teachers of the World 72 

V. What We Owe to the Romans 76 

The Land of Italy 76 

The Roman People , *^ 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Stories of Early Rome 81 

The Roman Army 81 

Rome and Carthage 83 

Roman Conquests 86 

What the Romans Learned from the Greeks 86 

How Rome Became an Empire 89 

What the Romans Did for the World 94 

VI. The Beginnings of the Christian Religion 99 

The Life and Teachings of Jesus 99 

The Beginnings of the Church 101 

The Romans Persecute the Christians 102 

The Triumph of the Church 105 

How the Monasteries Began 107 

VII. The Beginnings of Modern Europe 110 

The Early Germans 110 

The Fall of the Roman Empire 113 

The New Kingdoms : 116 

Charles Martel and Charlemagne 119 

The Mingling of the Germans and the Romans 120 

Our Debt to the German Peoples ' 123 

VIII. The Making of the English 126 

The Island of Britain 126 

The Angles and the Saxons 128 

The Conquest of Britain 129 

The Conversion of the English 131 

The Coming of the Danes 134 

Alfred the Great and His Work 135 

Life in Early England 138 

The Coming of the Normans 141 

IX. Life in the Middle Ages 146 

How the Common People Lived 146 

Life in the Castles 149 

Knighthood or Chivalry 152 

The Church in the Middle Ages 155 

The Monks and Their Work 157 

The Crusades 162 

The Influence of the Crusades 165 

X. The Growth of the English Nation 168 

English Farming in the Middle Ages 168 

Important Changes in Enghsh Country Life 170 

How Goods were Made and Sold in the Middle Ages 171 

The Beginning of Trial by Jury 174 

The Great Charter 176 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER PAGE 

The Origin of Parliament 177 

The English Interfere in Ireland 179 

The Union of England, Wales, and Scotland 181 

The English Language 184 

The Earliest EngUsh Literature 185 

XI. The Europe which Found America 188 

Europe at the Time America was Discovered 188 

France 1^9 

Spain 189 

Germany and Italy .• • 191 

Manufacturing and Commerce just Before the Dis- 
covery of America 192 

Great Inventions and New Ideas 196 

The Revival of Learning 199 

Some Great Artists and Famous Pictures 202 

The Reformation 205 

XII. The East and the West 208 

The Wealth of the East 208 

The Routes of Trade 212 

The Story of Marco Polo 214 

The Coming of the Turks 217 

How the Portuguese Found a New Way to India. . 218 

XIII. How Europe Found America 222 

Christopher Columbus and His Plan 222 

The First Voyage of Columbus 225 

The Finding of Strange Coasts 230 

How it was Proved that America is not Asia 233 

The New World 236 

The Indians 238 

XIV. How the Spaniards Won a Great Empire in America 242 

The Settlement of the West Indies 242 

How Cortes Conquered Mexico 244 

The Conquest of Peru 250 

The First Spaniards on the Coast of the United States 252 

The Story of De Soto 253 

The Explorations of Coronado 255 

Spanish America 25b 

XV. Opening the Way for English Settlement in 

America 26^ 

England and Spain in the Sixteenth Century 262 

The Exploits of Francis Drake • .• • 265 

The First Attempts at English Settlement in America 269 
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada 27i 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVI. How THE English Began a New Nation in America 278 

The Rivals of Spain 278 

The Foimdina: of Jamestown 279 

The Colony of Virginia 282 

The Planting of Maryland 286 

XVII. From Old England to New England 291 

The Puritans 291 

The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers 293 

How the Puritans Came to Massachusetts 299 

The Colony of Massachusetts Bay 301 

Roger Williams and the Providence Plantation 303 

Anne Hutchinson and Her Friends 307 

The Early Puritan Settlements in Connecticut 308 

XVIII. The Second Period of English Settlement in 

America 313 

The Revolution in England Checks Colonizing for a 

Time 313 

How Charles II Gave Land in America to His 

Friends 314 

The Settlers of Carolina 315 

The Contrast Between North Carolina and South 

Carolina 318 

The Beginning of Georgia 319 

The Dutch Colony of New Netherland 321 

How New Netherland Became New York 324 

The Origin of New Jersey 326 

William Penn and the Quakers 327 

How William Penn Founded Pennsylvania 329 

Pioneers and Pioneer Life in Pennsylvania 331 

XIX. Life in the New World 334 

Making a Living in the Colonies 334 

The Colonists at Home 340 

How the Colonies were Governed 345 

The EngHsh Language in America 348 

The First American Schools and Colleges 349 

Early American Printing 351 

The ReHgion and Morals of the Colonists 352 

XX. Our Heritage and Our History 357 

What We Inherited from the Old World 357 

What Our People Have Done in the New World .... 361 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Homes in the Old World and the New 2 

The Statue of Liberty 3 

The White Star Liner "Britannic" 4 

The "Mayflower" 5 

Arrow-heads and Axes of Stone 9 

An Early Hunter 10 

A Landscape in the Time of Early Man 10 

Early Ways of Making Fire 11 

A Mammoth 12 

A Woolly Rhinoceros 12 

Our Common Domestic Animals 13 

Four Important Cereals 14 

A Lake Village of Early Times 14 

The Evolution of the House 15 

An Early Man Chipping a Flint 16 

Tools and Implements of Bone 16 

Axes op Rough Stone, Smooth Stone, Bronze, and Iron ... 17 

Kind of Basket Woven by Early Women 18 

Early Bowl and Pitchers of Clay 19 

Grinding Meal 19 

Steps in the Development of Transportation 20 

Primitive Men Smelting and Working Iron 21 

The Beginnings of Art 23 

A Boat on the Nile 27 

A Scene in Egypt 28 

Plowing and Sowing in Ancient Babylonia 29 

Egyptians Threshing 29 

Egyptian Glass Blowers at Work 31 

Egyptian Sandal-makers and Carpenters 31 

An Egyptian Boat on the Way to Market 32 

Camels Bringing Goods of the Ancient East to Phcenicia . 32 

A Phcenician Ship 33 

The Home of a Rich Egyptian 35 

An Egyptian Nobleman 36 

An Assyrian Lion Hunt 36 

How the Alphabet Grew 39 

A Babylonian School Book 40 

The Palace of an Assyrian King 41 

A Winged Bull 42 

A Babylonian Temple 42 

The Ruins of the Temple of Karnak in Egypt 43 

A Funeral Boat upon the Nile 44 

Building the Pyramids 45 

David 47 

(xi) 



xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

A Bit of Greek Landscape 51 

Early Greek Metal Work 53 

A Greek School 56 

A Statue of Venus , . . 57 

Greek Soldiers 58 

The Pass of Thermopyl^ 60 

A Greek Warship 60 

Greeks Rejoicing after the Battle of Salami s 62 

A Greek Athlete 63 

Statue of the Greek God Hermes 63 

A Greek Vase 64 

A Greek Tombstone , 64 

Pericles '. 65 

The Acropolis of Athens 66 

The Statue of Athena in the Parthenon, Athens 67 

At the Home of a Wealthy Athenian 68 

A Greek Theater 70 

Socrates 71 

Demosthenes 72 

Alexander the Great 73 

An Early Roman Hut 79 

A Roman 79 

A Roman Soldier 82 

Hannibal 84 

A Roman Army on the March 85 

A Roman Boy Studying His Lesson 87 

The Pantheon 88 

A Fine Roman House 89 

Life in a Roman Home 90 

Julius C^sar 92 

The Roman Forum 93 

The Appian Way 94 

The Coliseum 96 

The Ruins of a Roman Aqueduct 97 

A- Street Scene in Jerusalem 99 

Paul Preaching at Athens 101 

"The Christians to the Lions" 104 

An Early German Victor 110 

A Village of the Early Germans Ill 

Woden 112 

Thor 112 

German Warriors Crossing a River 113 

Alaric, the Gothic Chieftain, in Athens 115 

Interior of a Church at Ravenna in Italy 117 

Charlemagne on His Throne 119 

The Baptism of Clovis 122 

St. Boniface Cutting Down the Sacred Oak 123 

English Landscape 127 

Saxon Ships Nearing the Coast of England 128 

Gregory and the English Slaves 131 

St. Martin's Church, Canterbury 132 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 



PAGE 

One of the Oldest Churches in England 133 

A Viking Ship 134 

Alfred the Great 137 

Farm Life in Early England 138- 

The Hall in an Early English Manor House 139 

Early English Jugglers 140 

William the Conqueror Landing in England 142 

An English Castle Built by the Normans 144 

Serfs at Work 147 

A Street in a Medieval Town 149 

The Wartburg 150 

Knights Returning to a Castle after a Raid 151 

Pages Serving Their Lord and His Lady at Table 152 

A Lord Knighting a Squire 154 

A Bishop on His Throne.* 157 

A Great Monastery in the Middle Ages 158 

The Writing Room of a Monastery 159 

The Cathedral at Rheims in France 161 

Crusaders on the March 163 

Crusaders Storming a City 164 

The City of Constantinople 165 

A Ship of the Time of the Crusades 166 

Plan of a Manor in the Middle Ages .' 169 

An Old English Manor House 169 

A Medieval Town House at Lincoln, England 171 

A Master Carpenter and His Apprentice at Work 172 

A Fair in the Middle Ages 173 

Trial by Battle 175 

King John Signing the Great Charter 177 

The British House of Parliament 178 

Caernarvon Castle, Wales 181 

The Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey, London .... 183 

Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims 186 

The Alhambra 190 

Loggia Dei Lanzi, Florence 191 

A Street in the Old Market in Florence 192 

A Venetian Warship 193 

An Early Musket 197 

An Early Cannon 197 

An Early Printing Press 198 

Dante 200 

"MoNA Lisa" 202 

The Church of St. Peter at Rome 203 

Erasmus 203 

A Portrait of Velasquez Painted by Himself 204 

Baby Stuart 204 

A Caravan of Camels 213 

Prince Henry the Navigator 219 

A Portuguese Ship 220 

Columbus on the Deck of His Flagship 222 

Columbus before the Spanish Council 224 



xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The Flagship of Columbus 225 

The Departure of Columbus 226 

The Landing of Columbus 228 

The Return of Columbus 229 

Balboa Taking Possession of the South Sea 233 

Ferdinand Magellan 234 

Monument to Magellan 235 

A Group of Sioux Indians 237 

Indian Utensils, Tools, and Weapons 238 

A Fort of the Peruvians 239 

A Castle of the Ancient Mexicans 240 

A Temple-palace of the Ancient Mexicans 244 

Cortes 245 

A Cannon of Cortes' Time ^ 245 

Montezuma * 247 

The Spaniards Storming the City of Mexico 248 

The City of Mexico 249 

Francisco Pizarro 250 

Llamas 251 

The Burial of De Soto 254 

Life in an Indian Pueblo 257 

Indian Tepees 257 

A Navajo Home in the Spanish Southwest 258 

An Old Spanish Mission at San Gabriel, California 259 

The Panama Canal 260 

Queen Elizabeth 262 

Philip II of Spain 263 

William the Silent 264 

Francis Drake 266 

Queen Elizabeth Knighting Drake upon the Deck of His 

Flagship 269 

Sir Walter Raleigh 271 

A Spanish Galleon 272 

The Spanish Armada 274 

Champlain 278 

Hudson's Ship, the "Half Moon," on the Hudson River.. 279 

Captain John Smith 281 

A Field of Tobacco 284 

The Introduction of Slavery into Virginia 284 

The Early Virginians Attacked by Indians 285 

George Calvert, Lord Baltimore 286 

The Planting of Maryland 287 

A Fine Old Colonial House in Maryland 289 

Shakespeare Reading from His Poems before Queen 

Elizabeth 291 

Fine Clothes in the Time of Queen Elizabeth 292 

The Brewster House 293 

The Return of the "Mayflower" 295 

Plymouth in 1622 296 

An Old New England House 297 

A Puritan Minister Preaching 298 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv 

PAGE 

John Winthrop 300 

A Massachusetts House Built in 1684 302 

Roger Williams Escaping into the Forest 305 

Roger Williams Landing at Providence 306 

Puritans Barricading Their Door against a Threatened 

Attack by the Indians 310 

Oliver Cromwell 314 

King Charles II 315 

The Home of a Wealthy South Carolina Planter 317 

A Colonial Home in Charleston 319 

New Amsterdam in 1655 321 

The Van Rensselaer House 322 

Peter Stuyvesant on the Street in New Amsterdam 323 

Peter Stuyvesant Denouncing Terms of Surrender 324 

An Early New York House 325 

William Penn 329 

A Wampum Belt 330 

Penn's First Residence in America 332 

Early Colonists Building a House 334 

An Example of an Old-time Plow 335 

A Colonial Housewife Spinning 336 

An Old Colonial Sawmill 338 

A Colonial Shipyard at Salem, Massachusetts 338 

The Chew House 341 

A Log Cabin on the Frontier 341 

A Colonial Kitchen 342 

In the Garden of a Fine Old Colonial Home in Virginia .... 344 

A Two-wheeled Chaise 345 

A Man Sitting in the Stocks 348 

Man Standing in the Pillory 348 

An Old New England Schoolhouse 350 

William and Mary College 351 

Puritans Going to Church 353 



LIST OF MAPS 

Europe (colored) Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The Lands where Civilization Began 26 

The Greek World 50 

Empire of Alexander (the Great) 74 

Ancient Italy 77 

Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent (colored), between 90 and 91 

British Isles (colored) facing 126 

Europe in the Sixteenth Century (colored) . between 188 and 189 

Medieval Trade Routes 195 

Trade in the Orient 211 

Marco Polo's Journeys 215 

The Spanish Explorers 231 

An Early Map of America 232 

North and South America (colored) facing 236 

Early Virginia and Maryland 280 

Early Colonial New England 304 

The Carolinas and Georgia 316 

The Middle Colonies 320 



fxvi) 



CHAPTER I 
OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 

Where Americans Came From. — Are there any boys 
and girls in our school who were not born in America? 
How many of you have parents who were born in 
some other country? Many of us have grandparents 
and great-grandparents who are natives of the United 
States, but none of us can trace our family histories 
back for more than two or three hundred years with- 
out finding that our ancestors came to America from 
other lands. 

We are a part of the American people. There are 
more than one hundred milhons of us now, but we 
are all the descendants of immigrants who came to 
the New World from beyond the Atlantic Ocean. 
A vast number of us look back to the pleasant fields 
I of England, to the hills of Scotland, or to the green 
shores of Ireland as '^Our Old Home." Germany 
is the beloved '^Fatherland" to many others. Busy 
little Holland, sunny Italy, and distant Russia have 
all sent their sons to help make our country. Most 
of our people came from European ancestors. About 
ten millions of them, however, who have black skins, 
are descended from negro slaves who were brought 
against their wills from the continent of Africa. 

In many cases our family names suggest the 
countries from which our people came. The Browns 

(1) 



BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



and the Clarks, the Robinsons and the Taylors, as 
well as the Binghams and the Washingtons and all 
other families whose names end in ''ham" or ''ton" 
are from England. The Mackenzies and the Buchanans 

are of Scotch descent. 
The Kellys and the 
O'Connors once called 
Ireland their home. 
Germany sent the 
Beckers and the Hoff- 
manns. The first 
Petersons and Carl- 
sons came from Nor- 
way or Sweden. It is 
quite probable that 
the man who keeps 
the nearest fruit store 
has an Italian name 
and that you buy 
candy and ice cream 
from men who were 
born in Greece. But 
whatever our names 
or the lands of our 
ancestors, we are all Americans now. 

Everywhere in our country are people whose fore- 
fathers came from the British Islands. The people 
with German names are also widely scattered. Such 
cities as Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati are 
full of them. New York, Philadelphia, and other 
large cities have many folks of Italian birth or parent- 
age. Where there is much heavy work to be done. 




Country Life 
HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 
AND THE NEW 

Many of our ancestors once lived in modest 
European cottages like the one represented in 
the lower picture. Above is a typical small 
American house. 



OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 




as in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, the steel mills 
of Pittsburgh, or the meat-packing houses of Chicago, 
we find many newcomers from Austria and Russia. 
These recent immigrants 
are digging our sewers, 
building and repairing 
our railroads, and working 
in our mills and factories. 
They and their children, 
as much as those whose 
ancestors have been long in 
the land, are the Ameri- 
cans of the future. We can 
all say, ''This is our 
country." 

Why Europeans Came to 
America. — It is more than 
three hundred years since 
the first Europeans began 
to come to the country we 

now call the United States covr.unaerwooa^^unaerwooa 

of America. From the the statue of liberty 

... , , This great statue which stands upon 

begmnmg those who came an island in New York harbor is the 

■ . . - gift of the people of France to the 

have been Writme; back to united states it represents Liberty 

'^ , enlightening the world. 

their relatives and friends 

about the opportunities in their new homes. In 
this way the few who came first have been enticing 
larger and larger numbers every year to come to 
America, the land of promise. The number of immi- 
grants has continued to grow up to the present time. 
Recently, as many as a million new American settlers 
have landed on our shores in a single year. For a 



4 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

long time every one who came was welcomed. Now 
we have laws shutting out paupers, criminals, and 
those who have dangerous diseases. Chinese laborers 
are also excluded. 

Nearly all the people who have come from Europe 




THE WHITE STAR LINER "BRITANNIC" 
The largest ship sailing the sea, over 900 feet long, 50,000 tons, with a crew of 
nearly 1,000, and room for 2,500 passengers. 



to America, from its earliest history to the present 
time, came because they wanted to be free, or because 
they wanted a better chance to make a living than 
the Old World could give them. Some of them fled 
from the tyranny of wicked kings; others came to 
win the right to worship God in their own way; while 
ms-ny were driven out by the want and poverty in 




OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 5 

the overcrowded lands of their old homes. America 
has been the land of liberty and of opportunity to 
one and all from the earliest to the latest comer. 

How Our Ancestors Crossed the Atlantic. — Many 
millions of the more recent immigrants to America 
came in large steamships like the one opposite. 
Their voyage lasted only a few days and was made 
without great hardship. It was not so with the earlier 
settlers who came to our country. 
Their passage across the Atlantic was 
a long and tedious one sometimes 
lasting many weeks. It was made 
in a small sailing vessel like the one 
pictured here. Often the passengers ^,„„, „,,,, ,, commer. 
suffered greatly because of crowded ^^^^^ 
quarters and poor food. Frequently This smaii sailing 

, . ^ 1 . 1 1 1 vessel is a good example 

disease broke out on shipboard and ^{ ^^e kind of ships in 

^ which the earlier set- 

many died. For example, about thTAtwic'''''irwl3 
two hundred years ago a shipload """^^ ^^^ ^^^* ^°^^- 
of one hundred and fifty Germans started for America. 
One hundred of them died on the voyage. A little 
later there was another ship in which out of four 
hundred who sailed only one hundred and five lived 
to reach America. 

The strong and the brave were the ones who sur- 
vived the awful hardships of the old-time voyage 
from Europe to America. Of those who reached the 
new land, only the strongest and the bravest could 
long withstand the exposure, the diseases, and the 
Indian fighting which they faced as they cleared the 
land and built their new homes in the wilderness. 
The hardy and vigorous men and women who lived 



6 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

through the trying experiences of those early days 
were the ancestors of many of us who are the Americans 
of today. We may well sing of our country as — 
^^The land of the free and the home of the brave." 

What Americans Brought from the Old World. — 
The Europeans who came to be Americans were 
civilized people. They brought their manners, their 
customs, and their ideals with them. They planted 
the civilization of their home lands in America. Our 
American life and civilization have grown from what 
was thus planted. 

Now ^' civilization" is a long, hard word, but we 
shall not find it difficult to understand what it means. 
By civilized people we mean people who have laws 
and a government that enforces obedience to these 
laws; who cultivate the soil; who carry on commerce; 
who have houses and roads and ships; who have 
schools and books and pictures and music; in a word, 
people who live very much as we do now. 

The settlers in America brought with them from 
their old homes in Europe the knowledge how to make 
a living and of how to enjoy life. They brought with 
them, too, many ideas and beliefs about right and 
wrong and about their duties to other men and their 
duty to God. These ideas and beliefs were also a 
part of their civilization. 

The ways of doing things and the popular ideas 
of comfort, convenience, and progress which make 
up what we call civilization, have changed much in 
America, and many of them have been wonderfully 
developed and improved. But the sources of our 
civilization are in Europe. 



OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 7 

The earliest men that we know anything about 
had none of these things that make up civiUzation. 
It had taken men many thousands of years to learn 
what they knew when they first began to come from 
Europe to America three or four hundred years ago. 
The story of the way civilized ideas of living grew 
up in the Old World is as much a part of our history 
as the story of the way the European peoples first 
brought these ideas to the shores of America. We 
are to read both of these stories in this book. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Locate upon the map of Europe all the countries named in this 
chapter. 

2. What is your own mother country in Europe? 

3. Why did your ancestors come to America? 

4. Find out all you can about how your ancestors lived in their Old 
World homes. 

5. Talk with some recent immigrant about his journey to America. 

6. Ask him how America differs from his home land in Europe. 

7. Ought we to further restrict immigration to the United States? 

8. What can we do to help the new comers in our country to become 
Americans? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

E. A. Ross: The Old World in the New. 

H. P. Fairchild: Immigration. 

J. R. Commons: Races and Immigrants in America. 

T. J. Warne: The Tide of Immigration. 

Jenks and Lauck: The Immigration Problem. 

E. A. Steiner: The Immigrant Tide; On the Trail of the Immigrant. 

Mary Antin, The Promised Land. 



CHAPTER II 
WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 

The Earliest Men. — History is the story of what 
men have done in the past. It was not until men 
had learned how to write that they could keep a record 
of what they did. But men Uved upon the earth 
for many thousand years before they knew how to 
write. In that early time they learned how to do 
many things which we are still doing and to make many 
things which we are still making and using. In these 
ways they did much to make life what it is for us. 

How is it possible for us to know anything about 
what life was like in those ancient times when men 
could not write? Did you ever find an Indian arrow- 
head? Perhaps you have seen a collection of stone 
arrow-heads and axes like those in the picture opposite. 
These relics and others like them tell us many things 
about the people who made them. Then there are peo- 
ples now living, like the natives of Australia or some 
of the tribes of American Indians, who still use, or did 
until very recently, these crude stone implements 
and who live very much as our own ancestors lived 
many thousand years ago. 

The earliest men lived but little better than the 
animals in the forest about them. They were with- 
out shelter or clothing and had only such food as they 
could find from day to day. Men have either found 

(8) 



WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 9 



or made everything that we now have. Early man 
possessed a great advantage over all the animals 
because he had a better brain and a wonderful pair 




ARROW-HEADS AND AXES OF STONE LIKE THESE WERE USED 
BY OUR EARLY ANCESTORS 
No. 1, lance-head; Nos. 2 and 3, arrow-heads; No. 4, chopper; No. 5, lance- 
head; No. 6, axe-head. 

of hands with which he could make the weapons, 
tools, and other things that he needed. 

Men have always needed food, shelter, clothing, 
and the means of protection against the dangers 
around them. It took our early ancestors many 
thousand years to learn how to provide themselves 
with these simple necessities of life. 



10 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 




The Food of the Earliest Men. — At first men lived 
upon the roots, herbs, wild berries, and fruits in the 
forest. Sometimes they found birds' nests in the 
trees and ate the eggs or the young birds. Occasion- 
ally they found a dead bird or animal and thus learned 
to like the taste of flesh. Then they 
began to kill the smaller animals 
with stones or clubs and in this way 
they became meat eaters. When 
men had learned how to make knives, 
spears, and bows and arrows, they 
could kill the larger animals and get 
a better supply of food. 

For a long time all food was eaten 
raw, because the use of fire was 
unknown. We do not know how man discovered 
fire. He may have kindled it first from a tree set 
aflame by the lightning. By and by he found that 
a spark could be produced by striking two stones 
together in the right way or that he could make a 
fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together. 

The making of fire was one of the most wonderful 
inventions in the world. Men could now cook their 
food. At first they roasted bits of meat before the 
blaze or in the hot ashes. Later, when they had 



AN EARLY 
HUNTER 
Notice his weapons 
of stone. 





Am. Mus. Natural History 
A LANDSCAPE IN THE TI]ME OF EARLY MAN 
Many of the large animals of these early days no longer exist. 



WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 11 



learned how to make vessels that would hold water, 
they began to boil all kinds of food over the fire. 

How Wild Animals and Plants were Tamed. — For 
a long time men procured their food by hunting, 
trapping, and fishing. During this time they began 
to capture and tame the young of some of the wild 
animals. Probably 
the dog was the first 
domestic animal. The 
cow was also domes- 
ticated at a very 
early period. Man 
used her meat and 
milk for food and her 
skin for clothing. He 
made tools and imple- 
ments out of her 
bones and horns. No 
other animal has been 
more useful to him. 
The goat and the 
sheep, the hog and the ass, and later the horse, were 
tamed by earl^ men long before real history began. 
After these animals had been domesticated by the 
hunters and trappers, some men became shepherds 
and herdsmen and wandered from place to place 
with their flocks and herds in search of the best 
pastures. 

Presently another step was taken toward civilized 
life. Men had long known that the seeds of some of 
the wild grasses and plants were good to eat. Now 
some one noticed that if these seeds were sown they 




EARLY WAYS OF MAKING FIRE 



12 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 




American Museum of Natural Hisiory, New York 
A MAMMOTH 
With their spears and bows ajid arrows early men sometimes huBted such ' 'big 
game" as the mammoth and the rhinoceros pictured below. 




American Museum of Natural History, New York 
A WOOLLY RHINOCEROS 



WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 13 

sprang up and brought forth many more seeds. Then 
it was discovered that the seeds grew better and 
yielded a more abundant crop if the ground were 
broken up and made soft before the seed was sown. 
Because of these discoveries some men began to be 




OUR COMMON DOMESTIC ANIMALS 
Can you identify all of them? Of what service to man is each? 

farmers. By cultivation, the wild grasses which grew 
in the fields or beside the rivers were developed into 
wheat, oats, barley, and rice, the great cereals of the 
world. 

When men began to procure their food by culti- 
vating the soil it became necessary for them to remain 
in the same place in order to gather the harvest when 
it ripened. They could no longer wander from place 
to place as they had done when they were only hunters 
or shepherds. They now began to live in permanent 
villages and to cultivate the land lying near by. In 



14 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



this way the beginning 
of farming led to a 
settled life and the 
making of permanent 
homes. 

The First Shelter 
and Clothing. — Prob- 
ably the earhest men 
had only such shelter 
from the rain and pro- 
tection from wild ani- 
mals as the trees gave 
them. After a time 
men began to live in 
dens and caves in the 
earth. These people 
are called the ^^cave 
dwellers." Still later 
men built huts by 
bending young trees 
together, weaving 
branches between them, and covering the whole 
structure with leaves and bark. When the hut was 
built of poles covered with the skins of animals it 
became a tent. Many of the people who wandered 




FOUR IMPORTANT CEREALS 
1. Wheat, 2. Barley, 

4. Rice. 



3. Oats, 




Am. Mus. Natural History 
A VILLAGE OF EARLY TIMES BUILT OVER A LAKE IN SWITZERLAND 



WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 15 

from place to place with their flocks and herds dwelt 
in tents. 

When men settled near the fields that they were 
beginning to cultivate, they built permanent homes 
of stone plastered with mud or of bricks made of clay 
and dried in the sun. The roofs were covered with 
brush or timber. Then fireplaces and rude chimneys 
were added to these simple houses, and in other ways 
man's dwelling place was gradually improved. 

The first clothing was probably made from the 
leaves of trees or from grasses matted together. When 
man became a good hunter he wore the skins of the 




Notice the progress from the cave to the tent, the hut, and the simple house. 



animals that he killed. The ancestors of all of us 
were once clad in skins. The women of those early 
days used to cure the skins of small animals by drying 
them. Then they made garments of them by sewing 
them together with needles of bone and the sinews 
of animals for thread. 

The women scraped and worked the large skins 
until they were soft and pliable. These they used 
for clothing, or for blankets, or for the covering of 
their tents. Still later, the women learned to spin 
yarn from wool sheared from the sheep and from the 
thread of the flax which they were beginning to raise. 
The next step was to weave the yarn and the thread 
into woolen and linen cloth. 



16 BEGINNINGS IN P]UROPE AND AMERICA 




AN EARLY 
MAN 

At work chip- 
aing a piece of 
iint. 



Early Weapons, Tools, and Utensils. — It was 

because early man had the mind to invent and 

the hands to make the weapons, tools, and utensils 
which he needed that he was able to 
make such progress in procuring food, 
shelter, and clothing. 

Man's first weapon was a club. A 
stone which he used to crack nuts with 
probably was his earliest tool. At first 
he simply found stones of the right 
shape for his purpose. Then he began 
to chip a piece of flint until it had a 
rough edge. Now he had a hatchet as 

well as a hammer. Because he held this hatchet in 

his hand it has 

been called a fist- // 

hatchet. A great // ^^ ^ 

many of these fist- 

hatchets have 

been found. In 

the course of time I A/o2 

man learned how 

to use thongs of 

rawhide to bind 

handles to his fist- 
hatchets. Now 

he had axes and 

spears. 

It was a great 

day in the long 

climb toward civi- 
lized ways of living ^^l\ digger 



)Ayo:5 




/Vo4 



V ^0^ 

TOOLS AND lAlPLEMENTS OF BOXE 
No. 1, needle; Nos. 2, 3, and 4, javelin heads; 



WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 17 

when some unknown inventor made the first bow. 
With arrows tipped with sharp bits of stone, man 
could now kill the larger animals. Stone knives were 
used to skin the game. Flint scrapers and other 
implements were very useful in scraping and softening 
the skins to fit them for use. 




AXES OF ROUGH STONE, SMOOTH STONE. BRONZE, AND IRON 
No. 1, smooth stone axe; No. 2, rough stone axe; No. 3, iron axe-head, showing 
socket; No. 4, bronze axe-head. 



By using pieces of flint with rough edges as saws 
and files, men began to make tools of horn, bones, 
and shells. They now possessed daggers and hammers 
of horn and awls and needles of bone. 

For many thousand years, stone arrow-heads, knives, 
and axes were made with rough chipped edges. This 
time is sometimes called the Old Stone Age. When 
men had learned to make better tools of their stone 



18 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

knives and axes by grinding and polishing them to a 
smooth, sharp edge, they had entered upon the New 
Stone Age. 

The next great forward step in human progress 
was taken when men discovered metals and began 
to use them. Copper was the first metal used, but 
it was soon found that it was too soft for making many 
articles. 

Presently it was discovered that if a little tin were 

mixed with the copper 
it made a harder metal 
called bronze. So 
many weapons, tools, 
and ornaments were 
made of bronze that 
wiversitv Museum, PMia the tlmo wheu it was 
''''''' ^EARLrwoiS^'''' ^^ used is called the 

Bronze Age. 
Iron is the most useful of all the metals. It is 
much harder than bronze and better suited in every 
way for making tools and implements. It took man 
a long time to learn how to use it, because it is not so 
easy to work as copper and bronze. When man made 
this ^'king of metals'^ his servant, he traveled a long, 
long way on the road which leads to civilization. 
The men invented the weapons and some of the 
tools of the earliest ages. But it is probable that the 
women first made many useful tools and utensils. 
Women wove the first baskets to use in gathering 
and carrying berries, nuts, and other articles of food. 
They used to cover fish with clay in order to bake 
them in the coals and they noticed how the fires 




WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 19 



hardened the clay. Then by molding clay over 
baskets so that they could be hung over the fire, 
women gradually learned how to make earthenware 
pots and bowls. Afterwards they cut spoons, ladles, 




mi 



University Museum, PMadelpMa 
EARLY BOWL AND PITCHERS OF CLAY 

and drinking cups from shells, gourds, and the horns 
of animals. In these ways our foremothers made 
their first cooking utensils and their first dishes for 
holding and serving 
food and drink. 

Women were not 
only the first basket- 
makers and potters. 
They were also the 
first spinners and 
weavers. They 
ground the first grain 
into flour with mor- 
tars and pestles of 
stone. Later they 
made simple mills for 
this purpose. In 
fact, women who lived before the dawn of history, 
began nearly all the household arts and crafts and in 
this way helped all the people who have lived since then. 

Our earliest ancestors, like ourselves, found it 




GRINDING MEAL 
The primitive woman spread the grains on 
a flat stone and crushed them by rubbing 
with a rock. 



20 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

necessary to carry things from place to place. But 
they lived long before the days of the railroad and 
the steamship. The first burdens were borne by the 
women. They followed the men who hunted, and 
carried the meat and the hides of the slain animals 
back to the camp. After the dog, the donkey, and 




Commercial Museum, Philadelphia 
STEPS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 
The human burden bearer, the camel, the rude sled, the two-wheeled cart, and the 
Conestoga wagon. 



the horse had been tamed, articles to be transported 
were packed upon their backs or dragged upon the 
ground behind them. Sleds were made in the northern 
lands. Canoes and boats were built by the dwellers 
by the rivers and the sea. Last of all, the wheeled 
cart was invented. All these things are older than 
history. 

We often call our own time the age of invention. 
The steam engine, the telegraph, and the many uses 
of electricity are all modern, They have made wonder- 



WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 21 



ful changes in our ways of living. But these changes 
in our lives are not as remarkable as were those made 
in the lives of our earliest ancestors so long ago by such 
inventions as the fishhook and the bow and arrow, 
and such discoveries as how to make fire, how to make 
pottery, how to domesticate animals and plants, 
and how to smelt and work the metals. 

Some Other Important Beginnings Made by Early 
Men. — Nowadays children have homes and are cared 
for by their parents. 
Among the very ^ 

earliest men there ^ - ' 

was nothing like our 
homes or our fam- 
ilies. Each person 
found his own food 
and took care of 
himself. Of course, 
mothers cared for 
their babies, but nobody took care of a child after he 
was large enough to find his own food. Then he had 
to shift for himself. When he wanted his breakfast or 
his dinner he dug roots or hunted for berries, nuts, or 
acorns. Sometimes he feasted upon birds^ eggs or 
upon a rabbit or a squirrel which he had caught. 
The honey which he found in the nests of the wild 
bees was his only candy and he was apt to get well 
stung in taking it. He lived in constant fear of the 
wild animals around him and usually slept in a tree 
for safety. He spent his entire life in this way. 

There are many things that people can do better 
by working together. It took many years for early 




PRIMITIVE MEN SMELTING AND 
WORKING IRON 



22 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

men to learn to help one another. When they became 
cave dwellers and learned how to make fire, the first 
family group began to be formed. This group was 
called the clan. The clan simply means those who 
were kin to each other; that is, a number of men and 
women who believed that they were descended from 
a common ancestor. At first the common ancestor 
was a woman, the clan mother. In those days, rela- 
tionship was always counted on the mother^ s side. 
When a man married he went to live with the clan 
of his wife. In the course of time groups of clans 
came to be called tribes. 

A long time later, after the animals had been 
domesticated and men had come to own flocks and 
herds and other things that we call property, the 
father became the head of the family, as we know 
it today. Our kind of a family with the father as 
its head existed before history began. 

Words had to be invented, just as tools were. At 
first men had no language. Very slowly they gave 
names to the things about them and learned to talk 
to each other. Mothers sang jingles and lullabies 
to their babies. Around the campfire at night men 
told how they had hunted the wild beasts. Women 
talked as they gathered and prepared food or dressed 
the skins of the wild animals. Mothers wanted their 
children to be brave and wise, so they told them 
stories about the bravest and wisest of their clan in 
the olden time. Perhaps this is why children, and 
older people too for that matter, have always been 
fond of stories. In these ways languages grew and 
the simple beginnings of literature were made. 



WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 23 



People have always been fond of ornaments. The 
earliest men wore necklaces of teeth and claws. Later 
they made beads of bronze or of gold. The women 
tried to make their baskets and their clothes as 
beautiful as possible by coloring them with natural 




THE BEGINNINGS OF ART 
Early men drew these pictures on bone or on the walls of caves. 

dyes. Some of the men liked to draw pictures of wild 
animals upon pieces of bone or upon the walls of their 
homes in the caves. People learned to count upon 
their fingers, and to use various parts of their bodies, 
like the finger, the hand, and the arm, as measures 
of length. For example, the cubit of which we read 
in the Bible was the distance from the elbow to the 
end of the middle finger. Our arts and sciences have 
grown from such crude and simple beginnings. 



24 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Our early ancestors lived in fear of many things 
about them. They thought that fire, the rivers, the 
sea, the sun, and many other natural objects were 
alive and could harm them or help them. So they 
offered gifts to all these things and prayed to them 
for help. Early men also believed that the souls 
of their ancestors lived after death, and that these 
ancestors could help them or harm them. They 
thought that if they offered gifts of food and drink 
at the graves of their dead, the spirits of the departed 
would be pleased and would protect the living members 
of their families. If, on the other hand, the dead were 
neglected or forgotten they would become evil spirits 
who might bring great misfortune upon the living. 
They also thought that if the dead were not properly 
buried they would become ghosts haunting the places 
they had known when they were alive. Because of 
these ideas early men were very careful to worship 
their ancestors. The first religions of the world grew 
out of these beliefs and practices of primitive men 
with reference to nature and to their ov/n ancestors. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Describe any stone weapons or tools that you have seen. 

2. Why is your hand more useful than the paw of any animal? 

3. Try to kindle a fire by any of the methods used by primitive men. 

4. From what source did each article of food upon your dinner table 
today come? 

5. What part of your clothing is derived from animals? What part 
from plants? 

6. Did you ever make a bow and arrow? A basket? A piece of 
pottery? Try it. 

7. What inventions have come into use within your hfetime? 

8. We are still making new words. Find instances of the growth of 
our language in this way. 



WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US 25 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Edward Clodd: The Story of Primitive Man. 

Hoernes: Primitive Man. 

Frederick Starr: First Steps in Human Progress. 

O. T, Mason: Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 

Nicholas Joly: Man before the Metals. 

Tylor: Primitive Culture. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Katharine E. Dopp: The Tree-Dwellers; The Early Cave Men; The 

Later Cave Men; The Early Sea People. 
Holbrook: Cave, Mound, and Lake Dwellers, and Other Primitive People. 
Mclntyre: The Cave Boy of the Stone Age. 
Waterloo: The Story of Ah. 



CHAPTER III 
OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST CIVILIZED PEOPLES 

Where the First Civilized People Lived. — The 

Nile is a mighty river, which has its source in the 
great lakes in the heart of Africa. After a winding 




THE LANDS WHERE CIVILIZATION BEGAN 

course of nearly four thousand miles it flows into 
the Mediterranean Sea. The lower valley of this 
famous stream is the land of Egypt. Two other famous 
rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, rise in the snow- 
capped Armenian mountains and flow toward the 
southeast until at last they pour their united waters 

(26) 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 27 



into the Persian Gulf. Their lower valley was once 
called Babylonia. The homes of the first civihzed 
men were in the valleys of these three great rivers. 
There were civilized people also at a very early 
period in India and China but we do not study 
about them because their his- 
tory has had very Uttle influ- 
ence upon our own. 

Egypt is really a long green 
oasis in the midst of a vast 
desert through which the Nile 
has cut a deep and narrow 
valley. Every summer, when 
the snows melt and the rains 
fall in the African highlands, 
the Nile overflows its banks. 
When the river returns to 
its channel it leaves the 
ground covered with a rich 
coat of earth. This yearly 
overflow of the river has been 
going on for ages, so that it 
has been truly said that ''Egypt is the gift of the 
Nile.'' Is it any wonder that the Egyptians used to 
sing this song in its honor: 

''Greeting to thee, Nile, who hast revealed thy- 
self throughout the land, who comest in peace to give 
life to Egypt. Does it rise? The land is filled with 
joy, every heart exults, every being receives its food, 
every mouth is full. It brings bounties that are full 
of delight, it creates all good things, it makes the grain 
to spring up for the beasts." 




university Mziseum, PMla. 
A BOAT ON THE NILE 



28 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

In some ways Babylonia was very much like Egypt. 
When its two great rivers were swollen by the melting 
snows or winter rains their waters poured out over 
the plain, leaving layers of rich soil behind them. 
When, by means of dykes and canals, the flood was 




s/%^»*. , , ^ ^ . ^ *.u^^^^«i^fe; 




A SCENE IN EGYPT 
The model of the plow, which ia used today, is as ancient as the pyramids. 

controlled and this sunny land was properly irrigated, 
it became the most fertile country in the world. 

The Arabian desert lies between these two homes 
of the earliest civilization. But farther north they 
are connected by a strip of fertile land called Syria. 
This land was the home of the Phoenicians and the 
Hebrews, two peoples who did much to make possible 
the life we are living today. 

Men have always sought lands where it is easy to 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 29 



make a living. It was natural, therefore, that the 
people of the neighboring deserts should early drive 
their flocks and herds to the rich pastures of these two 
great river valleys. Here they soon learned that by 
cultivating the soil they could make a far better living 
than they had ever 
known before. Thus the 
fertility of Egypt and 
Babylonia helped to 
make them the homes of 
the earliest civilization. 
The First Farmers. — 
The Egyptians and Bab- 
ylonians were the first good farmers in the world. They 
had herds of milch cows and of fat cattle. They used 
oxen to draw their plows and donkeys to carry their 
burdens. They kept sheep, goats, and swine, and 
had great flocks of geese along the Nile. Wheat and 
barley were their chief crops but they also cultivated 




University Museum. Phila. 
PLOWING AND SOWING IN 
ANCIENT BABYLONIA 




EGYPTIANS THRESHING 

peas and beans. The date palm was the most useful 
tree in Egypt. It not only yielded fruit in abundance, 
but baskets were made of its leaves, twine and rope 
of its fibre, and fences and houses of its wood. 

All the simpler processes of the farmer^s work grew 
up in these countries. We can see their people plowing 



30 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

with a sharp, pointed stick, hoeing with a rude hoe, 
harvesting the grain with the sickle, and threshing 
it with the flaih Egypt and Babylonia produced 
immense crops of grain, so that they not only sup- 
ported their own dense population but sold food to 
the neighboring peoples. 

The Beginnings of Manufacturing. — As the need 
arose for more clothing, tools, utensils, and other 
useful articles, some men began to live by making 
these wares and exchanging them for the products 
of the soil. In the course of time, these workmen 
who gathered in the towns of Egypt and Babylonia 
came to possess great skill in their various trades. 

The people of Babylonia early learned how to make 
bricks which were the chief building material of their 
country. They also manufactured tiles, fine glazed 
bricks, and pottery. The potter learned to use a 
wheel in molding his bowls and jars and then to 
harden the soft clay by burning the vessels in closed 
furnaces. As they worked at their trade these early 
craftsmen developed wonderful skill, so that the 
valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates became the 
original home of the finest porcelain ware. 

The Egyptians, also, early developed many impor- 
tant industries. The finely wrought tools and well- 
made utensils which are dug up from the ruins of 
their cities and towns tell us that their workers in 
copper, bronze, gold, and later in iron, had rare skill. 
Besides all kinds of useful tools,, they made rings, 
bracelets, jewel boxes, and perfume caskets of bronze 
and glass. The Egyptian glass was famous throughout 
the ancient world for the beauty of its form and color. 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 31 




EGYPTIAN GLASS BLOWERS 
AT WORK 



The spindle and the loom were well known to these 
earliest of civilized peoples. The Unen of Egypt, 
fine as silk, was famous all over the ancient world. 
The weavers of Babylonia made the finest of muslins 
and of fleecy woolens. They 
wove rugs of beautiful design 
and brilliant color, and 
splendid tapestries for the 
walls of the kings' palaces. 
One of the kings of Assyria, 
which was in the upper 
Tigris valley, writes of ^Hrees 

that bore wool" and says that his people clipped 
and carded it for garments. This is the first time 
that the cotton plant is mentioned in history. 

Then there were workers in wood and in leather. 
Cabinetmakers made stools and couches, and some- 
times fine chairs, which were covered with silver and 

gold and fitted with soft 
leathern cushions. On the 
banks of the Nile, shipbuilders 
constructed the boats and 
ships which carried the goods 
of the country up or down 
the river and even along the 
shores of the great sea to the 
north. 

The Growth of Trade and 
Commerce. — Trade and commerce are as old as the 
dawn of history. In the early days in Egypt the Nile 
was alive with boats on their way to the nearest 
market, where the products and wares of the people 




EGYPTIAN SANDAL-MAKERS 
AND CARPENTERS 



32 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

could be exchanged. Caravans of donkeys were sent 
far into the interior of Africa after gold, ivory, ostrich 
feathers, and fragrant gums. The merchants of Baby- 
lonia traveled far and wide to exchange the grain 

and wool of their 
country for the metals 
and the timber which 
they needed. 

The Phoenicians 
were the greatest 
traders of ancient 
times. Their home was a narrow strip of land border- 
ing the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. As 
Phoenicia was situated on the best road connecting 
Egypt and Babylonia, it was the natural meeting 
place of their trade. To it came caravans of camels 
heavily loaded with the goods of both those countries. 











— 
















■~ 






t'}\\- 










\iV 














J^^ 


r\i 





AN EGYPTIAN BOAT ON THE WAY 
TO MARKET 



>4 ^ "^^C 

■■■■■III 



CAMELS BRINGING GOODS OF THE ANCIENT EAST TO PHCENICIA 

Other caravans came from the far south with the 
gold and the perfumes of Arabia and the pearls and 
the spices of India. Still others brought horses and 
slaves from the countries bordering on the Black Sea. 
But the Phoenicians are especially famous as the 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 33 

first real sailors of the world. The ' ^ cedars of Lebanon " 
from the mountains just back of their coast furnished 
the best of wood for building ships. With vessels 
propelled by oars and sails they explored every coast 
of the Mediterranean Sea and pushed boldly out into 




Commercial Museum, Philadelphia 

A PHiEiNiCiAN oHIP 

It was in ships like this one that men first traded upon the sea. This ship was 109 
feet long, 20 feet wide, and drew 5 feet of water. 

the open Atlantic. They established trading stations 
and colonies in many places. Their ships returned 
to Sidon and Tyre, the rich cities of their own country, 
laden with the copper of Cyprus, the iron, the lead, 
and the silver of Spain, and the tin of Britain. Some- 
times they brought ivory and slaves from the west coast 
of Africa or yellow amber from the distant Baltic lands. 



34 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

In exchange for all these things the Phoenician 
sailors gave the goods of Egypt and of the Tigris- 
Euphrates valley and the fine wares and splendid 
purple cloth of their own country. In this way the 
early peoples of Europe first came to know something 
of the civihzation of the East. They learned many 
things from the Phoenicians that helped them toward 
better ways of living. 

The earliest commerce was carried on by means of 
barter; that is, people traded goods with each other. 
The Phoenicians, for example, when they visited the 
islands or the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, would 
display the weapons or the rich purple cloth of Tyre 
and Sidon. If the natives desired these things they 
would bring the grain, the hides, or the metals of 
their own country to exchange for them. This was 
a very inconvenient way of doing business and soon 
the need of money as a common medium of exchange 
was felt. At first, rings or bars of gold, silver, or 
bronze were used for this purpose. Their value was 
estimated from their weight. This made it necessary 
for the merchant to carry a pair of scales with him. 
Later, coins were made by the government in each 
country. These were found to be much more con- 
venient. After money began to be used, banks were 
established. The Babylonians were famous bankers 
and the rest of the world learned the business from 
them. 

Early Social Life. — The rich and the poor were 
found among the earliest civilized peoples, just as 
we find them everywhere today. The kings, the rich 
nobles, and the priests owned nearly all the land. 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 35 



In the towns there were wealthy merchants, well-to- 
do shopkeepers and skilled workmen. But the mass 
of the people in all the early Eastern lands were very 
poor. They rented small farms or worked for wages 
in the fields or in the shops. Everywhere there were 
slaves in those early times. Some of the slaves were 
captives taken in war, 
others had been stolen 
from their homes by 
slave traders. The Phoe- 
nicians were famous 
dealers in slaves. The 
free laborers and the 
slaves alike lived lives 
of unending toil and 
poverty. Both worked 
under overseers who 
often beat them. It was 
an Egyptian proverb 
that ''Man has a back 
and obeys only when it 
is beaten." 

The rich people lived in roomy and comfortable 
houses. In Egypt the rich man's home was surrounded 
by gardens in which there were pools of water and 
many flowers, fig trees, and date palms. The wealthy 
Babylonian built his house upon a mound of earth 
raised high above the plain. In both countries the 
poor found shelter from the sun's heat by day and 
from the chill of night in little huts or hovels built 
of reeds and thatch or of mud bricks dried in the sun. 

Those who could afford it dressed in fine linen and 




THE HOME OF A RICH 
EGYPTIAN 



36 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



rich purple cloth, but the most of the 
people wore only a single cotton gar- 
ment. Yet both classes were happy 
and light hearted. They were fond of 
dancing, singing, and playing on instru- 
ments like our guitar and harp. They 
invented the games of checkers and 
chess. Hunting and fishing were popu- 
lar sports. In Babylonia and Assyria 
hunting the lion, the wild bull, and the 
boar was a favorite royal pastime. 

The First Governments. — We have 
seen that early men began to live in 
groups called clans and that after a time 
several clans united to form a tribe. 
By and by, several tribes were joined 
together to form a state. This early state is called a 
city-state because its people lived in a city and on the 
land in its vifinitv. Tliese earlv states were small 




AN EGYPTIAN 
NOBLEMAN 




n 



/>* 



^V.^»^.. 



»v*-^ 



From cast in University Museum, PhUa. 
AN ASSYRIAN LION HUNT 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 37 

and were ruled by kings. When their history begins 
Egypt and Babylonia were made up of many small 
states. In the course of time the strongest king 
gained the rule of the whole country. Then he often 
tried to conquer the neighboring countries and build 
up a great empire. This made it necessary for the 
tribes and httle city-states in those countries to unite 
in order to be better able to defend themselves. In 
these ways strong states or nations were formed. 

The Assyrians, who Uved in the Tigris valley north 
of Babylonia, were the greatest conquerors of early 
times. They had the first large armies armed with 
iron weapons. Under their great king, Sargon, and 
his successors, they conquered far and wide. Their 
kings grew rich upon the spoils of plundered cities. 
Their terrible armies left a trail of ruin and desolation 
behind them everywhere they went. 

After a time Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 
made himself the master of the whole Tigris-Euphrates 
valley and enjoyed a brief career of splendor and 
power. Last of all came the Persians, who lived east 
of Babylonia. Under their king, Cyrus the Great, 
they overran all western Asia. It was natural that 
all these conquering races should carry the ways 
of Hving and the knowledge of their home lands wher- 
ever they went. Public officers, travelers, and traders 
were constantly passing to and fro between all parts 
of these vast empires. All this helped to spread civili- 
zation throughout the Eastern World. 

The early king was a priest, the judge of his people, 
and their leader in battle. All power belonged to 
him. The people were taught that he was a god to 



38 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

whom they owed unquestioning obedience. If he 
were a good man, he was a real father to his people. 
Too often, however, he was a wicked tyrant, who 
thought only of his own pleasure and power. He 
lived in the midst of a great host of officers who enforced 
his laws and collected the taxes of grain, live stock, 
wine, honey, and the like upon which the king and 
his court lived. 

The Earliest Laws. — In the earliest times the laws 
were simply the customs of the people. At first they 
were unwritten, but there came a time in every 
country as its civilization grew, when its customs were 
written into a code of laws. The oldest written code 
of law in the world was the work of a Babylonian 
king named Hammurabi, who lived more than four 
thousand years ago. Many of his laws were wise 
and just. Some of them seem severe to us. One 
of them reads: 

^'If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall 
destroy his eye. If one break a man's bone, they shall 
break his bone. If a man knock out a tooth of a man 
of his own rank they shall knock out his tooth/' 

The Invention of the Art of Writing. — The art of 
writing was the greatest invention of ancient times. 
No other single thing that early men did has helped 
more to make our life what it is today. In the earliest 
writing in the world objects were represented by 
pictures of them. For instance, a circle stood for 
the sun, and a crescent for the moon. In the course 
of time the picture became a sign or symbol. The 
picture of the sun, for example, suggested day. At 
last there grew up a phonetic alphabet; that is, an 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 39 

alphabet in which some of the symbols had become 
letters, each letter representing a single sound. The 
Egyptians possessed an alphabet at a very early period, 
though they used picture and sign writing at the same 
time. The Phoenicians had an alphabet of twenty- 
two letters. Through 

theu" commerce, they did K^ n/ A A 

much to spread the M^ A, >^ A /^ 
knowledge of it to other 
lands. The peoples of 
Europe first learned the 
alphabet from them. 
The table on this page 
will help you to see 
how these peoples have 
somewhat changed the 
Phoenician alphabet and 
handed it on to us. 

We owe the invention 
of our writing materials 
also to the Egyptians. 
They made paper of a 
reed, called papyrus, 

wViipli D-rPW in tVlP Nilp Showing how a few of the letters devel- 

WniCn grew lll ine IMIC. oped into their present form. 

By thickening water with 

a vegetable gum and then adding soot to it, they 
made ink. A pointed reed served for a pen. The 
Babylonians wrote with the tip of a reed or with 
a sharp-pointed metal instrument upon a soft piece 
of clay which they then baked into a very hard brick. 
Great numbers of these ancient brick books exist 
today. 



^ 


^ 


"> 


^ B 


lul 


TiX 


•^^E 


.// 


■f I 


•ei. 


^ 


. (r~~ 


7 


;1K 


t , I 

-s -1 ■§ ^ 

2 S i -^ -S 

M W £ W K^ 

HOW THE ALPHABET GREW 



40 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



The Literature and Science of Egypt and Baby- 
lonia. — The kings of Egypt and Babylonia took great 
pains to have records made of their deeds. The 
priests wrote prayers and hymns to their gods. In 

these ways htera- 
ture began. In 
time the Egyptians 
and the Babylo- 
nians came to write 
about many things. 
They had poems, 
proverbs, histories, 
and even cook- 
books. They told 
many fairy stories. 
The story of Cin- 
derella is one that 
Egyptian children 
knew as well as 
you do. Many 
tales were written 

Made of clay, showing the lesson in one corner, g^bout thc Wauder- 
with blank spaces for copying it. 

ings and adventures 
of their heroes. The kings of Babylonia and Assyria 
collected and preserved great libraries of the clay 
books of their countries. 

We owe our calendar to the people of Egypt and 
Babylonia. At first men reckoned time by ''moons." 
More than six thousand years ago the Egyptians divided 
the year into twelve months of thirty days each. 
Then they added five festival days at the end of the 
year. The first day of the Nile flood was New Year's 




In University Museum, Phila. 
A BABYLONIAN SCHOOLBOOK 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 41 

day with them. From the Babylonians we get the 
week, with its ^^day of rest for the soul" as they 
called the seventh day. They also divided the day 
into hours, minutes, and seconds, as we know them, 
and invented the sundial to keep the time by day and 
the water clock to tell the hours at night. 

These people also gave us arithmetic and made a 
start in geometry. The Babylonians invented the 




THE PALACE OF AN ASSYRIAN KING 
These palaces were built of sun-dried brick. 



decimal system of notation, although they knew and 
used other ways of writing numbers. They were 
likewise the first people to make a regular system of 
weights and measures. The Egyptians knew some- 
thing of the use of medicines, and the signs employed 
by apothecaries today to designate grains and drams 
were first used in Egypt. 

The cloudless skies and the still, warm nights of these 
Eastern countries naturally led their peoples to study 
the heavens. Indeed they were the first astronomers. 
They discovered the regular movements of the planets, 
foretold eclipses, and gave names to the stars. 



42 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



The Palaces and Temples of the Ancient World. — 

All the early civilized peoples whose work we have 
been studying were great builders. But their build- 
ings were more noted for their 
vast size than for their grace or 
beauty. In Assyria each king 
tried to build a larger and finer 
palace than the king before him 
had possessed. These palaces 
stood upon huge artificial 
mounds of earth. They were 
built of brick and decorated 
with great winged stone figures 
of lions or bulls with the 
heads of human beings. 

In Egypt the finest buildings were not palaces for 
the kings, but temples for the gods and tombs for 
the dead. Both the Babylonians and the Egyptians 




A WINGED BULL 

The Assyrians adorned the 
walls of their palaces with 
gigantic figures like this. 




A BABYLONIAN TEMPLE 
The temple is the tower with the terraces on its sides. 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 43 

believed in many gods. The sun was the greatest 
god of the Egyptians and their most splendid temples 
were built for his worship. They also worshipped 
the other powers of nature. The ruin of the temple 





HH: 


'^^^Hm 




|K 






HH 


^mf^^^M 




I^hB 


t ^Hjf-*** y'r "^H 








'^^"TS^ 




P^ r^^K/-. SHb 


\ 1 ||£^^H 


?^^HH 




'**'-^^4^^J 


s 


P^'" " ": ■• 



THE RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK IN EGYPT 
These columns are 67 feet high and 33 feet in circumference. 



44 BEGINNINGS IN EUBOPE AND AMERICA 



at Karnak in Egypt, with its long rows of gigantic 
columns, is one of the grandest sights in the world. 
Upon the walls of the great hall of this temple sculptors 
carved in stone scenes from the wars of the conquering 
Egyptian kings. 

Early Religious Beliefs. — The Egyptians beheved 
that after death the soul of man, which they thought 




In the UniversUy Mttseum, PMladelpMa 
A FUNERAL BOAT UPON THE NILE 

This is one of the models that the Egyptians used to place in their tombs. 

lived forever, might want to re-enter his body to rest 
there. So it seemed necessary to them to preserve 
the bodies of their dead. They did this by embalming 
the dead person and building a tomb for him. These 
embalmed bodies are called mummies. So well 
were they preserved that great numbers of them have 
been dug up in our own day. It was because the 
kings wanted larger and finer tombs than other men 
that they forced their subjects to build the great 




BUILDING THE PYRAMIDS 

A painting by Richter, showing Pharaoh carried by his bearers to watch the 
progress of the Work. 



46 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

pyramids for their last resting places. The largest 
and best known of the pyramids was built by Khufu, 
the Cheops of the Greeks, one of the early kings of 
Egypt. It covers thirteen acres and is about four 
hundred and fifty feet high. We are told that it 
took one hundred thousand men twenty years to 
build it. 

Like other early people, the Egyptians and Baby- 
lonians worshipped their ancestors. They had all 
sorts of strange beliefs about evil spirits, ghosts, and 
witches. Many of these ideas have lived almost to 
our own time. Some of the things these peoples did 
would seem very wrong to us. But many of our best 
thoughts about what is right are as old as ancient 
Egypt. The Egyptians believed that when the soul 
of man was judged by their god it ought to be able 
to say ^^I have never committed fraud; I have never 
been an idler; I have never altered the grain measure; 
I am pure; I have given bread to the hungry, water 
to the thirsty, clothing to the naked." 

Our Special Debt to the Hebrews. — The Hebrews, 
or Israelites as they are often called, did far more 
than all the other ancient peoples to teach us the truth 
about God and about right and wrong. They beheved 
in but one God, who made the world and governs it. 
They taught us that God loves righteousness and 
hates iniquity. God gave them, through Moses his 
servant who had led them out of bondage in Egypt, 
the Ten Commandments, the noblest laws of right 
living that have come down to us from ancient times. 
They are the following : 

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 




OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 47 

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 
image. 

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
God in vain. 

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

5. Honor thy father and thy mother. 

6. Thou shalt not kill. 

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

8. Thou shalt not steal. 

9. Thou shalt not bear false wit- 
ness. 

10. Thou shalt not covet. 

David, the Hebrew shepherd boy, 
who became one of the famous heroes / 
and kings of his people, was one of ^opr. 

,f 11, . . TT • Underwood & Underwood 

the world s great poets. He smgs DAvm 

of his trust in God in these words: MfXad AngSrone'S 

^'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall '^^^iptrs''^'" ^'■'^'''* 
not want. 

^'He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he 
leadeth me beside the still waters. 

''He restore th my soul; he leadeth me in the paths 
of righteousness for his name's sake.'' 

On another occasion, David utters this beautiful 
prayer: 

"May the words of my mouth and the meditations 
of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my 
strength and my redeemer." 

Too often the Israelites fell into the sinful ways of 
the other peoples about them. Then there arose 
great prophets among them to call them back to the 
true God and to right living. Amos, a simple herds- 



48 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

man, cries out to his people ^'Seek good and not evil, 
that ye may live/^ Isaiah, their greatest prophet, 
appeals to them in these words: ^'Wash you, make 
you clean, cease to do evil, learn to do good; relieve 
the oppressed; be just to the fatherless; plead for 
the widow/' The moral and religious teachings 
of the Hebrews are found in the Old Testament of 
our Bible, the most precious gift of the early Eastern 
World to us. 

' We owe much to the first civilized peoples. They 
made the beginnings of the industries and the sciences, 
of the literature and the religion that we have today. 
The knowledge of these things which they won was 
carried by conquest and commerce from the e.ast to 
the west. After the peoples of Europe had developed 
this knowledge, and made some very important addi- 
tions to it, they handed it on to America. 



QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Find upon the map the rivers and countries named in this chapter, 

2. How do our ways of plowing, harvesting, and threshing differ 
from those of ancient Egypt? 

3. What did the Egyptians and Babylonians make that we still 
make and use? What crafts or trades have we that were unknown 
to them? 

4. Make a list of the articles of commerce named in the 27th chap- 
ter of Ezekiel in the Bible. 

5. What is a law? 

6. Do we have laws that are simply the customs of the people? 

7. Try to write a message by means of pictures. 

8. How did the building material used in Egypt differ from that of 
the Tigris-Euphrates valley? 

9. Have you ever seen anything made by the early people described 
in this chapter? Egyptian and Assyrian relics may be found in any 
good museum. 



OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 49 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Robinson and Breasted: Outlines of European History, Part I, pp. 

17-109. 
Webster: Ancient History, pp. 28-113. 
Myres : The Dawn of History. 
Breasted : History of the Ancient Egyptians. 
Sayce: Babylonians and Assyrians. 
Kent: History of the Hebreiv People. 
Rawlinson : The Story of Phcenicia,. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 

The Home of the Greeks. — The Greeks were the 
first European people to become civihzed. Their 
home land in the southeastern corner of Europe is 







^ 



Ar 



^ A AT S ^ 



THE GREEK WORLD 
The dark parts of this map indicate the lands where the Greek people lived. 

a little country, about half as large as New York 
or Pennsylvania. Greece is full of mountains which 
divide the land into many valleys, separated from 
each other by high, rocky ridges which it is not easy 
to cross. In each of these valleys there grew up a 
little state. Athens and Sparta were the most famous 
of these states, but there were many others in Greece. 
Because of the difficulty of going from one valley to 

(50) 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 



51 



another the Greek states were never united to form 
a nation hke the United States of America. 

If you look at the map you will see that Greece 
is almost surrounded by water. The coast has many 
deep gulfs and bays. It is said that no place in the 
whole country is more than forty miles from the sea. 
With such a country it was natural that the Greeks 
should be a race of sailors. Notice that the sea east 
of Greece is full of 
islands. Such a sea 
is always beckoning 
people to cross it. 
On a clear day, the 
Greek sailors could 
cross to Asia without 
once losing sight of 
land. It was equally 
easy for the Phoeni- 
cian traders to come to Greece with the rich wares of 
the East. In both of these ways the Greeks early 
came in contact with the civilized peoples of Asia, 
from whom they learned many things. 

Greece is not a fertile country. Much of its land 
is bare rock. It can boast of no rich harvests or 
green pastures, yet it grows a little wheat and barley 
and has many grape vines and olive trees. In the 
mountains there are forests of oak and pine. Greece 
has a dehghtful climate. The air is cool and clear, 
and the people can live out of doors most of the time. 
It is a wonderfully beautiful country, and the land 
in which they lived did much to make the ancient 
Greeks a happy and joyous people. 




A BIT OF GREEK LANDSCAPE 



52 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Very early in their history, the need of more room 
for their people, the desire to trade, and the natural 
love of adventure of every brave and hardy race led 
the Greeks to explore and settle in other lands. One 
of these explorers tells us how he and his companions 
went forth upon the sea until they found a good land. 
He says of it, ^'Therein are soft water-meadows by 
the shore of the gray salt sea, and there the vines 
know no decay, and the land is level to plough. Also 
there is a fair haven where men may run the ship 
on the beach, and at the head of the harbor is a well 
of bright water issuing from a cave, and round it are 
poplars growing." 

Such stories told by returning explorers tempted 
many of the Greeks to seek new homes beyond the 
sea. In the course of time all the shores of the 
Mediterranean were dotted with their trading stations 
and settlements. The Greek merchants brought 
copper, silver, and gold from the countries north of 
the iEgean Sea, fish and timber from the coasts of 
the Black Sea, grain from Africa, and metals, wines, 
and oils from the far distant islands and shores of the 
western Mediterranean. Greek colonists settled in 
all of these regions. Some of the early Greek trading 
stations and colonies like Syracuse in Sicily grew to 
be rich and populous cities. There were so many 
Greek colonists in southern Italy that the country 
was called Great Greece. The ancient Greeks thought 
that Greece included all the lands where the Greeks 
lived. 

How the Greeks Lived. — When we first hear of the 
Greeks they were herdsmen and farmers. Their 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 



53 



cattle, the grain, vegetables, and fruits which they 
raised, and the fish that they caught in the neighbor- 
ing sea always furnished their supply of food. Most 
of the farms were small and the houses very simple. 
The early kings or chief men had more land and finer 
homes. Homer, one of the earliest Greek poets, has 
given us a charming picture of such a royal household 
and its surroundings. 
^^He had fifty hand- 
maids in the house, 
and some grind the 
yellow grain on the 
millstone, and others 




^^^^^mm^mmM. 



From reproductions in University Museum, PMla. 
EARLY GREEK METAL WORK 
A gold cup and a dagger. Notice the hunting scene pictured on the blade of the dagger. 

weave webs and turn the yarn as they sit, and the 
soft olive oil drops off that linen, so closely is it woven. 
And without the courtyard hard by the door is a 
great garden. There grow tall trees blossoming, 
pear trees and apple trees with bright fruit, and sweet 
figs and olives in their bloom. There too, he has a 
fruitful vineyard, and all manner of garden beds 
planted trimly, and therein are two fountains of 
water. '^ 

At first the Greeks made at home nearly everything 
they needed in the house or for the field. As we 
have already seen, however, the Phoenician traders 



54 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

early taught them to know and to desire the fine 
goods from the older civilized countries to the east. 
Later they learned how to manufacture these things 
for themselves, to coin money, and to carry on com- 
merce in their own ships. Some of the Greek cities 
were famous for their splendid bronze work, others 
for fine iron work and beautiful vases. In the course 
of time many Greeks grew wealthy through manu- 
facturing and commerce. 

The Greeks were a brave, wide-awake, and inde- 
pendent race who loved freedom above all things. 
From their earliest days they never were willing to 
give blind obedience to their rulers as the people of 
Egypt and Babylonia did. Although at first they 
had kings and chief men over them in their govern- 
ments, in most of their states the people gradually 
won the right to govern themselves. In this way 
they developed a government much like our own in 
which the people rule. Such a government is called 
a democracy. To the Greeks belongs the glory of 
being the founders of government by the people 
in Europe. 

The Spartans. — Athens and Sparta, the two leading 
states of Greece, were very unlike. The Spartans 
were the finest soldiers of their time. They spent 
their whole lives in training and on the battlefield. 
They believed that every Spartan must have a sound 
body to begin with. So they taught their boys to be 
healthy and brave. When they were seven years 
old they were taken from their parents and trained 
in groups. They wore but a single garment, went 
barefoot both summer and winter, ate the plainest 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 55 

kind of food, and were given the hardest kind of 
gymnastic training. ''They learned to read because 
that was necessary, but all the rest of their educa- 
tion was meant to teach them to obey with cheerful- 
ness, to endure toil, and to win battles.'' All the 
other Greeks respected the Spartans, and when Greece 
was in danger took them as their leaders against 
the foe. 

The Spartan girls were given very much the same 
kind of gymnastic training as the boys. They were 
taught to despise cowards and to admire brave men. 
The courage and the noble spirit of the women inspired 
the men to glorious deeds for their country. A Spartan 
mother, learning that her five sons had perished in 
battle, said, ''This is not what I wish to know; does 
victory belong to Sparta?" "Yes." "Then let us 
render thanks to the gods." 

The Spartans did many things that we cannot 
admire, and have no desire to imitate. At the same 
time they taught us some lessons that we need to 
learn: to live simply and plainly; to control our- 
selves; to love and serve our country; to try to have 
healthy, strong, and vigorous bodies. 

The Athenians. — The Spartans, however, never 
were anything but soldiers. The Athenians, on the 
other hand, trained the mind as well as the body. 
They could fight as bravely as the Spartans when 
the need arose; but they did not give their whole 
lives to military training and to war. They were 
farmers and shepherds or fishermen and sailors. Those 
who lived in the city were mechanics or merchants. 
The Spartan used few words in speaking, while the 



56 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



Athenian loved to talk and to tell stories. Many 
of the great poets and wonderful artists of Greece 
were Athenians. 

The Athenian boy was early taught to behave 
properly and to obey. He went to a school where 
he learned to read and write, to cipher, to recite poetry, 

and to sing. He, too, 
was given gymnastic 
training to make him 
sound and beautiful 
in body. When he 
was eighteen years old 
he was given the arms 
which he was to bear 
in time of war. On 
this occasion, before 
all the people, he took 
the following oath: 
^^I swear never to dis- 
honor these sacred 
arms, not to quit my 
post, to obey the 
magistrates and the 
laws, to honor the rehgion of my country.'' 

The Athenian lived simply in a small house with 
bare white walls and little furniture. But the little 
that he had was beautiful. He was temperate in all 
things. Solon, one of the wisest of the Athenians, 
gave his people the proverb, ^'Nothing in excess." 
The Athenians thought it the duty of every citizen 
to take part in the government of his country. One 
of their greatest men said, ^^We regard a man who 




University Museum, Phila. 

A GREEK SCHOOL 

(From a Greek painting on a vase.) What 

are the boys studying? At the side sits the 

slave who has brought the boys to school and 

is waiting to escort them home. 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 



57 



takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless, 
but as a useless character." 

The Greeks were a very rehgious people. They 
believed in many gods. They thought of these gods 
as much like themselves, only stronger and more 
beautiful. They believed the gods 
spoke to them in signs and dreams, 
and sometimes by the mouth of a 
person whom they inspired. They 
built splendid temples to the gods and 
often held joyous festivals and great 
athletic games in their honor. 

With all their splendid qualities the 
Greeks were not without serious 
faults. In all the Greek states many 
of the people were slaves who toiled 
while others enjoyed the fruits of their 
labor. The men, except possibly in 
Sparta, looked down upon the women 
who were treated as household 
drudges and had very few rights. 

How the Greeks Saved Freedom 
for the World. — There came a day, 
when the Greeks needed all their courage and all the 
strength and skill that their athletic and mihtary 
training had given them. You remember that the 
earliest civilized nations, one after another, had 
tried to conquer all their neighbors. The Per- 
sians were the last of these conquering peoples. 
They overran all western Asia. Egypt, with its 
wealth, was theirs too. Their empire was the 
greatest that the world had yet seen. They now 




A STATUE OF 
VENUS 

One of the god- 
desses worshipped by 
the Greeks. 



58 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

threatened Greece. It was a moment of utter peril 
to the Greek states. 

Never was there a contest which seemed more 
unequal. Persia was a world-wide empire, with 
boundless wealth and millions of men. The Greek 
states were small and poor, and had never learned 
to work together. But the Persians were the sub- 
jects of a tyrannical king, whose officers drove them 
into battle with whips. The Greeks, 
on the other hand, were free men, 
fighting for their country and for 
their homes. 

The war began in Asia Minor on 
the east coast of the iEgean Sea. 
There were many Greeks living in 
that country, and when the Persians 
GREEK SOLDIERS tried to rob them of their freedom 

It was such soldiers as n i ^ • -i • 

these who saved freedom thev Called upou thcir kiusmeu m 

by defeating the Persians. *^ 

Greece for aid. The Spartans 
refused to help them, but the Athenians sent twenty 
ships to their assistance. At first the Greeks were 
victorious, but in the end the Persians conquered all 
the Greek cities in Asia Minor and added them to 
their empire. 

Darius, the Persian king, now determined to punish 
the Athenians for helping the Greeks in Asia Minor 
and at the same time to conquer all of Greece. He 
began by sending messengers to the Greek states to 
demand ^' earth and water" as signs that they sub- 
mitted to him. The Athenians and Spartans threw 
the Persian messengers into pits and wells and told 
them to help themselves. This only made the Persian 




THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 59 

king the more angry. The Greeks must now fight 
to the bitter end. 

The Persian fleet landed a large army at Marathon, 
twenty-five miles from Athens. The men of Athens, 
under their great leader, Miltiades, were drawn up 
to oppose them. The Persians fought with bows and 
arrows, the Greeks with spears and short swords. 
On the day of battle Miltiades led his men with a 
rush through the storm of arrows until they came to 
close quarters with the Persians. Then thousands 
of the Persians were slain. The survivors were driven 
back to their ships and soon returned to Asia. 

Their splendid victory at Marathon filled the 
Athenians with confidence. Many of them thought 
that now their country was safe. But Themistocles, 
their wisest man, knew better. He felt sure that the 
Persians would come again in larger numbers. He 
persuaded the Athenians to build a great fleet. Athens 
and Sparta also tried to unite all the Greek states 
against the Persians. In this they were only partly 
successful. 

After ten years the Persians did come again. This 
time Xerxes, the son and successor of Darius, led a 
great host of men across the Hellespont, around the 
iEgean Sea, and into Greece from the north. Many 
of the Greek states joined the Persians. It seemed 
as if all Greece would lose its freedom. 

But the Spartans, the Athenians, and some of their 
allies were steadfast. Leonidas, the Spartan king, 
with three hundred of his own men and some from 
other states, was sent to hold Thermopylae, a narrow 
pass between the mountains and the sea through which 



60 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



the Persians must enter central Greece. Here one 
of the most heroic fights in the world took place. 

For two days the Per- 
sian host tried in vain 
to break the Spartan 
line. Then a Greek 
traitor showed the 
Persians a path over 
the mountains by 
which they gained the 
rear of the Greek posi- 
tion. Leonidas and 
his men could have 
escaped, but they 
chose to stay and 
fight until every one 
of them was killed. In 
later times their burial 
place was marked by these words: '^Stranger, tell in 
Sparta that we lie here in obedience to her laws.'' 




THE 

From a 
where Leonidas and his Spartans made their 
heroic fight. The sea is at the right of the 
picture. 



PASS OF THERMOPYL^ 
modern photograph of the spot 




From a model in the CommcTcial Museum, PMladelpMa 
A GREEK WARSHIP 
A trireme, about 150 feet long, rowed with three banks of oara. 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 61 

The Persians now advanced to Athens and burned 
the city. The Athenians had fled to a place of safety. 
The fighting men of Athens were on their ships, and 
under their great leader, Themistocles, they won an 
overwhelming victory at the famous naval battle of 
Salamis. 

This battle, which decided the fate of Greece, 
was fought in the bay of Salamis, near Athens. On 
the shore a golden throne had been set up for Xerxes, 
that he might better see the fight. 

*'A king sat on the rocky brow 
Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis: 
And ships by thousands lay below, 
And men in nations, — all were his, 
He counted them at break of day, 
And when the sun set, where were they?" 

A great Greek poet, who fought as a sailor on 
board an Athenian ship, tells us that when the Greek 
ships charged the Persian fleet, there was heard a 
mighty shout: 

"O sons of Hellenes, forward, free your country; 
Free, too, your wives, your children, and the shrines 
Built to your fathers' gods, and holy tombs 
Your ancestors now rest in. The fight 
Is for our all." 

The battle of Salamis lasted all day. When night 
fell the Persian fleet was shattered. Xerxes quickly 
withdrew to Asia. The next year the Spartans and 
the Athenians destroyed the Persian army, which he 
left behind him in Greece. The danger of Persian 
conquest was over. Soon a new and greater Athens 
was built upon the site of the burned city. 



62 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



The Persian war decided that the free Greeks were 
not to be the slaves of a despotic empire in Asia. 
But it decided far more than this. The Greeks were 
the first free, self-governing people in the world. They 
were to hand on the torch of freedom to Europe. 
In the course of time it was to pass from Europe to 
America. When the Greeks saved their own freedom 




From a painting hy Cormon 
GREEKS REJOICING AFTER THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS 

they saved freedom for the world. More than this, 
by their matchless courage in the presence of almost 
overwhelming odds in the long struggle with the 
mighty Persian empire they gave us a splendid and 
inspiring example of how to face the most fearful 
danger with stout hearts. 

The Beautiful Things which the Greeks Made. — 
The Greeks loved beautiful things. They were a 
people of fine taste, who knew what was beautiful 
and whose work has done much to teach us to know it. 

The most beautiful things that the Greeks ever 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 



63 



made were their own bodies. 
Their constant gymnastic train- 
ing and practice for their 
athletic games made them 
splendid examples of physical 
manhood. The victors in their 
great athletic contests were 
their heroes, and statues of 
them were set up in their 
native cities. We have seen 
that the Greeks thought of 
their gods as like themselves, 
only finer and handsomer. 
Their greatest artists carved 
the figures of these gods in 
marble. It is no wonder that 
the Greek statues are the 
most beauti- 




A GREEK ATHLETE 




STATUE OF THE GREEK GOD 
HERMES 

Thia statue is by Praxiteles, one of the 
greatest of Greek sculptors. It is one of 
the finest statues in the world. 



ful in the world, since the artists 
had all around them such beautiful 
people as models. Sculpture was 
the finest of the Greek arts. 

Cn The most beautiful 

object in every Greek 
city was a splendid 
temple which its people 
had built in honor of 
their gods. The gran- 
deur of the Greek temple 
was mainly due to the 
simple yet stately col- 
umns which helped to 



64 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 




support its roof. We still 
copy the architecture of the 
Greeks. In our cities there 
are many buildings in which 
columns like those of the 
Greek temples are used in one 
way or another. They con- 
stantly remind us of one of 
the gifts of the Greeks to us. 
The good taste of the 
Greeks is just as well shown 
in the small articles which 



In University Museum, Phila. 
A GREEK VASE 
Thousands of these beautiful 
Greek vases have been found. 

they made. Fine 
vases, like this one, 
were common in their 
homes. The pictures, 
painted with great skill 
upon these Greek 
vases, tell us much 
about the manners and 
customs of the people 
who made them. Even 
the gravestones of the 
Greeks were beautiful. 





In University Museum, Philadelphia 
A GREEK TOMBSTONE 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 



65 



On the opposite page is a picture of one. There 
were many gravestones quite as fine as this one in 
the cemeteries of Athens. 

Their victory over the Persians gave the Athenians 
wonderful confidence in themselves. Because of 
this confidence and of the freedom from interference 
by their enemies following their victory, there developed 
what is known as the golden age of Greek civilization. 
The greatest Greek artists and 
writers belong to this period. Peri- 
cles was the foremost Athenian at 
this time. He ruled the people by 
persuading them that what he 
wanted them to do was the wisest 
thing that they could do. We call 
the time when he was a leader in 
Athens the ^^Age of Pericles.'' 

Pericles was a great orator. In a 
speech to his fellow citizens he gives 
us this picture of Athens : 

^^ Because of the greatness of our city, the fruits 
of the whole earth flow in upon us. We are lovers 
of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we 
cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. Wealth 
we employ, not for talk and show, but when there is 
a real use for it. I would have you fix your eyes 
upon the greatness of Athens, until you become filled 
with the love of her." 

It was the dream of Pericles to make Athens the 
most beautiful city in the world. In the midst of 
the city stood a high, rocky hill, called the Acropolis. 
Upon this hill Pericles built the Parthenon, a temple 




PERICLES 



66 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

to Athena, the goddess best beloved by the Athenians 
because they thought she was the special guardian 
of their city. The Parthenon was the most beautiful 
building in all the ancient world. About it were 
other temples, second only to it in splendor. 

Phidias, the greatest sculptor who ever lived, 




THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS 
The most beautiful temples and theaters of the Greeks crowned this hill or 
adorned its sides. The Parthenon is the great temple on the top of the Acropolis. 

helped Pericles in the work of adorning the Acropolis. 
Upon the wall of the Parthenon he carved in marble 
a wonderful series of pictures representing a pro- 
cession of the Athenians carrying gifts to the goddess 
Athena. Within the Parthenon there stood a statue 
of Athena, thirty-eight feet in height, made of gold 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 



67 



and ivory. This statue was the masterpiece of 
Phidias. 

The Writings of the Greeks. — The Hterature of 
Greece is as priceless as its art. It contains many 
of the most beautiful stories and poems in all the 
world. It is the most precious of the many good 
gifts of the Greeks to us. 

The early Greeks told wonderful stories about 
their gods. We have seen that the Greeks believed 




THE STATUE OF ATHENA IN THE PARTHENON, ATHENS 

in many gods. They thought that twelve of these 
deities, six gods and six goddesses, lived upon the 
snow-capped top of Mount Olympus, a great mountain 
in the northern part of their country. Among the 
members of this Olympian Council, as it was called, 
were Zeus, the father of gods and men; Apollo, the 
god of light and music; Hermes, who presided over 
invention and commerce; Hera, the queen of Zeus; 
Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the domestic 
arts* and Demeter, who watched over seedtime and 



68 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

harvest. Besides the great gods who dwelt upon 
Mount Olympus the Greeks believed that there were 
many lesser divinities and strange beings like the 
beautiful nymphs who danced in the woods and the 
ugly satyrs who had human bodies with the hoofs 
and horns of goats. They also believed that every 




AT THE IIUAIE OF A W I^ALTHY ATHENIAN 
The tutor at the left is lecturing to his pupils. 



stream and mountain had a spirit which could think 
and feel very much as they did themselves. The 
Greeks told many interesting stories and wrote many 
beautiful poems about all these fanciful beings. 

Equally fascinating are the stories which the 
Greeks loved to tell about the wonderful exploits 
of their early heroes. Among the most famous of 
these heroes were Theseus who cleared the land of 
wicked giants and slew the dreadful Minotaur; 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 69 

Hercules, the strongest of all men, who performed 
twelve gigantic labors; Jason and his companions, 
who sailed in the stout ship "Argo" to bring home the 
'^golden fleece" and braved many terrible perils 
before they accomplished their purpose; Achilles 
and the other Greek chieftains who besieged and at 
last destroyed the famous city of Troy; and Odysseus 
or Ulysses who wandered for twenty years in strange 
lands where he met many thrilling adventures. You 
may read all these famous stories and many others 
like them in such fascinating books as Kingsley's 
^' Greek Heroes," Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" and 
"Tanglewood Tales," and Homer's "Iliad" and 
"Odyssey," two of the greatest poems of all time. 

The Greeks were fond of poetry set to music. Here 
is a martial song that they often sang before going 
into battle: 

''But valor is 'mongst men the chief renown, 
And most becoming for a youth to bear. 
A pubhc good that man is to his town, 
And all his people, who will firmly dare, 

"Amid the foremost of the warlike band, 
With feet apart, base flight forgetting all; 
Exposing life, with constant mind to stand, 
And to his comrades courage give to fall. 

"Good is such man in war; he turns to flight 
The fiercest phalanx of the rushing foe, 
And by his single, unassisted might, 
The tide of battle bids no further go." 

Sappho was the greatest poetess of the Greeks. 
She wrote many beautiful things like this picture 
of the rose: 



70 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 




"Did Jove a queen of flowers decree, 
The rose the queen of flowers should be. 
Of flowers the eye; of plants the gem; 
The meadow's blush; earth's diadem." 

The Greeks gave us the theater. Here is a picture 
of a great open-air theater in Greece. The plays 

acted upon its 
stage were written 
by some of the 
greatest poets of 
the world. The 
theater did for the 
Greeks much that 
the newspapers, 
lectures, and ser- 
mons do for us. 
They went to it 
to learn. Here 
are some of the 
ideas that their great play writers taught them: 

" 'Tis only in God's garden men may reap 
True joy and blessing." 

"Chance never helps the men who do not work." 

"The noblest hfe is that of righteousness; 
The best, one free from sickness; sweetest far 
To have each day the fill of all we wish." 

"There are three virtues to observe, my son: 
Honor the gods, the parents that begot you. 
The laws of Hellas. Follow these. 
And you will win the fairest crown of honor." 

The Greeks excelled in prose as well as in poetry. 
We owe them much in history, science, and philosophy. 
By philosophy they meant a search after knowledge 



TnnnroTnillltt 



A GREEK THEATER 
In the picture the theater is restored as it looked 
when the Greeks used it. 



THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 71 

and wisdom. The best men among the Greeks were 
philosophers. They taught their people ''not to 
slander their neighbors; to suffer harm rather than 
take a dishonest gain; to seek peace; to honor age; 
to obey the laws.'' 

One of the Greek philosophers wrote these golden 
words: 

"Let never sleep thy drowsy eyelids greet, 
Till thou hast pondered each act of the day: 
'Wherein have I transgressed? What have I done? 
What duty shunned?' — beginning from the first, 
Unto the last. Then grieve and fear for what 
Was basely done, but in the good rejoice." 

Socrates was the noblest Greek teacher. Many 
people made fun of him because of his bald head and 
homely face. He used to go about the streets of 
Athens, talking with those he met and trying to lead 
them by his questions to think as he 
thought. He taught that it is true 
wisdom to know what is good and 
to do what is right. 

Socrates made many enemies be- 
cause what he taught was contrary 
to some of the religious beliefs of the 
Athenians. When he was an old 
man he was accused of corrupting socrates 
the youth of Athens and was tried 
for his Ufe. Before the court which tried him he 
said, ''Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but 
I shall obey God rather than you." The court 
declared him guilty, and after he was condemned to 
.die he said, "Be of good cheer about death, and know 




72 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

this of a truth, — that no evil can happen to a good 
man either in this Ufe or after death." Socrates 
and the later philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, were 
the greatest men of ancient Greece. 

How the Greeks became the Teachers of the 
World. — The many small states in Greece were never 
able to unite to form a nation. Instead, they wasted 
their strength in fighting each other. The time came 
when their freedom was threatened 
by Philip, king of Macedon. Demos- 
thenes, the most eloquent orator 
of Athens, inspired his countrymen 
to oppose the growing power of 
Philip. At last the Athenians 
fought, but in vain. The freedom of 
Greece was lost. Philip was the 
master of the country. 
"demosthenes Philip had planned the conquest 

of the Persian empire, but he was 
killed before he could carry out his purpose. His 
work was continued by his son, Alexander the Great. 
Alexander was a high-spirited boy, quick tempered, 
and intensely ambitious. When the news of his 
father's victories reached him he said to his play- 
mates, ^^Boys, my father will get ahead of us in 
everything, and will leave nothing great for you or 
me to do." 

But his father left him a task which called for the 
genius of a great soldier, and Alexander was one of 
the greatest soldiers in all history. With an army of 
Macedonians and Greeks he invaded the vast Persian 
empire. The Persians could do little to withstand 




THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 73 

him. He overran Asia Minor, conquered Phoenicia, 
and occupied Egypt. Finally, in a great battle in the 
Tigris valley he defeated and killed the Persian king. 

Alexander now seized the Persian cities, in which 
he found immense treasures. He then extended his 
conquests eastward as far as India. He was now the 
lord of all western Asia, besides Egypt, Macedon, 
and Greece. This vast 
empire included nearly all 
the civilized world. Alex- 
ander made Babylon his 
capital. He soon died 
there at the early age of 
thirty- two. 

Alexander was far more 
than a great soldier. He 
was a great colonizer and Alexander the great 
civilizer. Greek cities 

sprang up in the track of his armies. Alexandria, 
in Egypt, named after the conqueror, was the most 
famous of these places. Greek people went to live 
in all the lands which he conquered. They carried 
the Greek language and Greek culture everywhere 
they went. Alexander's conquests made all the 
eastern lands hke Greece in life and thought. In 
the next chapter we shall see how the Greeks went 
westward to become the teachers of Europe. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. In what ways is life in your home community influenced by the 
geography of the locahty? 

2. Do people ever leave your home neighborhood to seek new homes 
elsewhere? If so, why do they go? Where do they go? 




74 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 




THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 75 

3. Would you prefer to have been a Spartan or an Athenian? Why? 

4. What would it have meant for the world if the Persians had con- 
quered the Greeks? 

5. Why do we have athletic games today? 

6. Can you find any buildings in your home town which look hke 
those of ancient Greece? 

7. Have you read any of the famous Greek stories mentioned in this 
chapter? 

8. Find upon the map the countries which Alexander conquered. 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Ancient Histories by West, Westermann, Goodspeed, Webster, Bots- 

ford, and Myers. 
Seignobos: History of Ancient Civilization, 
Botsf ord : History of Greece. 
Holm : History of Greece. 
Abbott: Pericles. 
Wheeler: Alexander the Great. 
Mahaffy: Ancient Life in Greece. 
Gulick: Life of the Ancient Greeks. 
Tucker: Life in Ancient Athens. 
Bulfinch: The Age of Fable. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Kingsley: The Heroes. 

Hawthorne : The Wonder Book; Tanglewood Tales. 

Church: The Story of the Iliad: the Story of the Odyssey; Three Greek 

Children. 
Tappan : The Story of the Greek People. 
Yonge : Young Folks' History of Greece. 
Haaren and Poland: Famous Men of Greece 
Hall: Men of Old Greece. 

Harding : Stories of Greek Gods, Heroes and Men. 
White : Plutarch for Boys and Girls. 



CHAPTER V 
WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 

The Land of Italy. — Our story now takes us from 
Greece to Italy. This country is a long, narrow 
peninsula, projecting into the Mediterranean Sea. 
Like Greece, Italy is a mountainous country. The 
Alps guard its northern border and shut it away from 
the rest of Europe. The Apennines are like a great 
backbone in the land. As this backbone of mountains 
is near the eastern coast the rivers of the peninsula 
flow toward the west. The good harbors are on the 
west coast. Italy thus turned its back to Greece 
and the older civilized countries of the East. 

Italy possesses a great variety of soil and chmate. 
Mountains and plains, snow and scorching heat are 
near together. It is a beautiful land. The Greeks 
thought it the best country in the ancient world. 
One of their writers says, ^' Italy contains a great deal 
of good arable land, without wanting pastures and 
forests, and abounds in delights and advantages. 
The plains yield three crops a year. The olive grounds 
and the vineyards are peerless. Then there are 
pastures for sheep, goats, horses and cattle. I can- 
not help admiring the forests full of all kinds of trees, 
which supply timber for ships and houses. There 
are many rivers which water the land and make 
easy the exchange of everything the country produces." 

(76) 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 77 







ANCIEiNT ITALF 

, SCALE OF MILF8 
100 200 300 400 



^ 



East 12'' from 



Grernwich 16 



78 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

When we first hear of Italy the greater part of the 
peninsula was occupied by many tribes of Italians. 
The Greeks held the southern coast. A civilized 
people called the Etruscans lived north of the Italians. 
The Italians lived in httle walled towns upon the 
hilltops and pastured their flocks in the neighboring 
fields. At that time men had not learned to organize 
large groups of people into a single state. Each little 
city was a separate state and these Italian city-states 
were often at war with each other. 

The Tiber is a small river near the middle of Italy. 
Upon the left bank of this river, about fourteen miles 
from its mouth, there is a group of seven hills. Upon 
one of these hills the city of Rome began its history. 
At first its life was much like that of the other Italian 
cities, but it was far better situated for commerce 
than any of them, and in time it became the most 
important city in the ancient world. As the city grew 
it spread over the adjacent hills. For this reason 
Rome is often called ^Hhe city of the seven hills." 

The Roman People. — Life in early Rome was very 
simple. Most of the people were shepherds and 
farmers. Wheat and barley were the chief grains. 
Such vegetables as beans, onions, cabbages, and 
turnips were grown in their gardens. In their orchards 
they gathered figs, apples, and plums. Porridge was 
the chief food of the Romans in early times. Bread 
was eaten with olive oil, cheese, or honey. In the 
city there were workers in copper and leather, potters, 
shoemakers, and carpenters. A small trade was 
carried on with their neighbors. 

The earliest Roman lived in a house of a single 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 



79 




AN EARLY ROMAN HUT 



room. This house had no windows and but one 

door. A hole in the center of the roof let out the 

smoke from the hearth. The 

floor was of earth mixed with 

stone and pounded until it 

was hard and smooth. A 

couch, a table, and some 

stools were the only furni- 
ture. In time this house 

was enlarged by adding 

rooms on the sides and in 

the rear. The dress of the 

early Roman was as simple 

as his house. His chief garment was a short-sleeved 

woolen shirt or tunic, reaching to his knees. When 

he appeared in public he threw around him a blanket 
of white wool, called a toga. 

The home was the most important 
feature of the old Roman life. The 
father had power to do anything he 
pleased with the members of his 
family. He could even sell his son 
into slavery or put him to death. 
Each family had its own gods who 
were worshipped before the hearth. 
Besides these, there were many gods 
who were worshipped by the whole 
people. At first Rome was ruled 
by a king. Later it was made a 
repubhc, governed by two consuls. 

There was also a council of the oldest and wisest 

men called the senate. 




A ROMAN 
Wearing tunic and toga. 



80 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

In the early history of Rome there was a great deal 
of trouble between the nobles who were called the 
patricians and the common people or plebeians. 
The patricians had more rights than the plebeians 
who were often sadly ill treated by their more powerful 
neighbors. The patricians thought that they were 
better than the common people, so they tried to keep 
all the important offices in their own hands. The 
plebeians contended that all Romans should have 
equal rights, and after a long and bitter struggle they 
forced the patricians to let them have officers called 
tribunes to protect them from oppression. The 
plebeians also succeeded in getting the laws of Rome 
put in writing so that every one could know what 
they were. After many years the plebeians won 
the right to help make the laws and to hold any office 
in the republic. 

The Romans, Uke all the other tribes of the ItaHans, 
were a brave and warlike people. They were stern 
and harsh, but at the same time they were energetic, 
dignified and truthful. They reverenced their gods 
and obeyed the laws of their country. Duty and 
discipline were their watchwords in the family and 
in the nation. One of the writers of the Romans, 
speaking of his own people, says: 

^'We are a race of hardy breed. We carry our 
children to the streams and harden them in the bitter, 
icy water; as boys they spend wakeful nights over 
the chase, and tire out the whirlwind, but in man- 
hood, unwearied by toil and trained to poverty, 
they subdue the soil with their mattocks, or shake 
towns in war." 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 81 

Stories of Early Rome. — The Romans told many 
interesting stories of the exploits of their early heroes. 
We do not know that these stories are true, but at 
least they teach us what kind of men the Romans 
admired. 

In one of the many wars with the mountain tribes 
east of Rome the Roman army was surrounded and 
in danger of destruction. In this crisis the senate 
appointed Cincinnatus, the foremost citizen of the 
time, to chief command. The messengers sent to 
notify him of his appointment found him at work 
upon his little farm across the Tiber. They greeted 
him as he leaned upon his spade. ^'Put on your 
toga/^ they said, 'Ho hear the message of the senate.'^ 
''Is not all well?" asked Cincinnatus, as he sent his 
wife to the house for his gown. Then, wiping the 
sweat and dust from his brow, he listened to the 
message. At once he took command. In sixteen 
days he had saved the army, defeated the enemy, 
and returned to Rome, his troops laden with booty. 
Then Cincinnatus quietly went back to his Httle 
farm. On another occasion, a powerful Etruscan 
king led a mighty host from the north against Rome. 
The only hope for the city was to destroy the bridge 
across the Tiber. The brave warrior, Horatius, 
with two companions, held the enemy in check at 
the farther bridge and until the Romans cut down 
the bridge behind him. Then he plunged into the 
Tiber and swam safely back to his friends. This 
stirring story, with several others, is finely told in 
Macaulay's ''Lays of Ancient Rome.'' 

The Roman Army. — The Romans believed that 

6 



82 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



they were descended from Mars, the god of war. 
At any rate they had the spirit of the war god. The 
Roman citizens were trained soldiers. On the parade 
ground, beside the Tiber, they marched and drilled 
in the use of their weapons. At first their army was 
called the legion. The other Italian peoples who 
were subject to Rome were required to send soldiers 
to serve in the Roman army. These 
troops were called allies. As the 
Romans increased in number and 
extended their conquests far and 
wide there came to be many legions 
in the Roman army. 

A Roman army marched rapidly. 
Every time it went into camp it 
fortified its position by digging a 
deep ditch around it and setting 
stakes in the bank of earth thrown 
up inside the ditch. Each soldier 
was armed with a short spear and a 
sword. In battle the Roman hurled his spear at the 
enemy and immediately rushed upon him with the 
sword. 

At first Rome was a small country. For a long 
time her territory was no larger than one of our 
counties. But Rome was almost constantly at war 
with her neighbors. In the course of time she over- 
ran the Etruscan territory, conquered the various 
Italian peoples, and won the Greek lands in the south 
of Italy. These conquests took several hundred 
years. Rome was now mistress of the peninsula of 
Italy. 




A ROMAN SOLDIER 
With his arms and armor. 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 83 

Rome and Carthage. — Carthage was Rome's next 
enemy. This city was situated upon the coast of 
Africa, directly opposite the mouth of the Tiber. 
At first a Phoenician trading station, Carthage had 
grown to be the greatest commercial city in the world. 
It ruled the greater part of the northern coast of 
Africa and the rich islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and 
Corsica. It was the greatest naval power of the 
time and its fleets controlled the western Mediterranean 
Sea. 

With this hated rival Rome fought three great wars. 
In the first one she built ships, and in spite of many 
disasters at last defeated the Carthaginians upon 
the sea and took the large islands west of Italy from 
them. In this first war with the Romans the Car- 
thaginians had found a great leader in Hamilcar, 
and after the war with Rome was over, he led them 
in the conquest of Spain. 

Before Hamilcar went to Spain he took his httle 
son, Hannibal, then nine years of age, into the temple 
in Carthage, and there before the altar of his country's 
gods made him swear eternal hatred to Rome. In 
the midst of the wars in Spain Hannibal grew up to 
be a splendid soldier, one of the greatest that the 
world has ever seen. ^'Toil could neither exhaust 
his body nor subdue his mind, and he could endure 
hunger and cold alike. He ate and drank no more 
than nature demanded. Working day and night, 
he thought of sleep only when there was nothing else 
to do; then wrapping himself in his military cloak, 
he would lie on the ground among the watches and 
the outposts of the army. Though he dressed as a 



84 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



plain officer, his arms and his horses were splendid." 
Hannibal was the most dangerous enemy that the 
Romans ever met. 

When he was old enough to become the leader of 
the Carthaginian army, Hannibal determined to 
conquer Rome. Leading his troops across the Pyrenees 
and over the Alps he invaded Italy from the north. 
In a series of famous battles he defeated the Romans 
and overran their country. But he 
was never able to capture the city of 
Rome. 

The Romans were never braver 
and more steadfast in their purpose 
than when their losses were the 
heaviest and their dangers the great- 
est. No sacrifice was too great for 
them to make in behalf of their 
country. After sixteen years of 
almost constant fighting they forced Hannibal to 
withdraw from Italy to Africa. Then they followed 
him into his own country, defeated him there, and 
forced the Carthaginians to give up Spain which was 
now made a Roman province. 

Half a century later the Romans, alarmed at the 
growing wealth and prosperity of Carthage and covet- 
ing her rich commerce, determined to destroy their 
hated rival. The Carthaginians were willing to do 
almost anything to avoid another war. First they 
gave the Romans three hundred children as hostages. 
''The mothers, who gave them up, clung to the little 
ones with frantic cries and seized hold of the ships 
and of the officers who were taking them away.'' 




HANNIBAL 
Rome's greatest enemy. 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 



85 



Now said the Roman consuls, ''If you sincerely desire 
peace, why do you need arms? Surrender them." 
The Carthaginians protested but in their great desire 
for peace they finally gave up their weapons and 
armor. Then the Romans told them of their determi- 
nation to destroy Carthage. 

The Carthaginians were furious and resolved to 




A ROMAN ARMY ON THE MARCH 

defend their city to the last drop of their blood. They 
worked night and day to make new weapons. They 
even used the temples for workshops and the women 
cut off their hair and made it into bowstrings. For 
three years the men of Carthage gallantly repulsed 
every assault of the Romans. But the time came 
when they could resist no longer. The Romans 
forced their way into the city and killed all the people. 
Then they utterly destroyed Carthage and sowed 
salt upon the place where it stood in order that nothing 



86 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

might grow there. Rome was now mistress of the 
shores of the western Mediterranean. 

Roman Conquests. — Before the final downfall of 
Carthage, Rome had turned her attention to the 
eastern lands with their rich cities and their highly 
civilized Greek people. In a series of great wars 
she conquered the various nations into which the 
empire of Alexander the Great had been broken up 
after his death. Macedon, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, 
and Egypt were all finally brought under the sway 
of Rome. 

But the Romans were not yet satisfied. Their 
greatest soldier, Julius Caesar, conquered Gaul, the 
land we now call France. The Roman conquests 
were continued until all Europe west and south of 
the Rhine and the Danube, western Asia, and northern 
Africa became the territories of the Roman people. 
Rome ruled the known world. Well might her 
greatest poet write: 

**But thou, O Roman, remember to govern the tribes of thy Empire, 
These be thine arts to impose the conditions of peace on the conquered. 
Sparing the captives in war, and crushing the haughty in battle." 

What the Romans Learned from the Greeks. — 
When the Romans conquered the countries about 
the eastern Mediterranean Sea they came in contact 
with peoples who were more highly civilized than 
they were themselves. They carried the plunder 
of rich Greek cities to Rome. In time trade sprang 
up between the east and the west. Roman soldiers 
who lived in the east came to know the manners and 
behefs of the Greek world and to adopt some of them. 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 



87 



Thousands of Greeks who had been carried to Rome 
as slaves, or who had come there to make their for- 
tunes, brought the customs and the ideas of their 
home land with them. In all these ways the Romans 
learned many things from the Greeks. 

The Romans now began to imitate the Greek ways 
of living. Greek games and amusements were intro- 
duced into Rome. Greek ath- 
letes were employed to amuse the 
people. Theaters like those of 
the Greeks began to be built. 
The very plays acted upon the 
stage were borrowed from the 
Greeks. These plays were at- 
tended by great throngs of people. 

In the early days Roman edu- 
cation was confined to the home. 
The Roman virtues and the 
duties of every-day hfe were ^a^rchmS^T "^'" ^ '''°" ""^ 
taught to the boys by their 
fathers and to the girls by their mothers. Now the 
Romans began to adopt the schools of the Greeks. 
Educated Greek slaves became the teachers of the 
Roman children. It became the custom for every 
well-educated Roman child to learn the Greek language. 
This made it possible for the Romans to read the 
splendid literature of the Greeks. Many a young 
Roman finished his education by taking a journey 
through the Greek lands. 

The Romans had very little literature of their own 
until after the Greek schoolmasters began to come 
to their country. Then books began to be written 



^ 


%j^ " " 


wm 


w 


'^^Otim 


i 


^^M-- 


A 


Vjt 




^^ 




g 


^3 1 


B 





A ROMAN BOY STUDY- 
ING HIS LESSON 
Notice that the Roman book 



88 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

in Latin, the language of the Romans. At first these 
Latin books were Httle more than translations of 
Greek works. But in time there came to be a great 
Latin literature, which is studied in our high schools 
and colleges at the present day. 

Among the spoils which the Romans took from the 




THE PANTHEON 
A beautiful temple in Rome dedicated to all the gods of the Romans. 

conquered Greek cities were many beautiful pictures 
and statues. These were carried to Rome by the 
shipload. In this way the Romans began to appreciate 
beautiful things. Their own art grew out of their 
efforts to copy or imitate the Greek works which they 
possessed. They were even more attracted by the 
beauty of the Greek temples. Presently stately 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 



89 



public buildings patterned after the Greek temples 
began to be built in Rome. We shall see how the 
Romans helped to hand on to us all the good things 
that they borrowed 
from the Greeks. 

How Rome Became 
an Empire. — The people 
and the property in the 
countries which the 
Romans conquered 
were at the mercy of 
the victorious soldiers. 
Some of the people 
were sold into slavery 
and most of the mov- 
able property was 
carried off to Rome. 
The Roman wars of 




Exterior. 




ENTRANCe 



Cross-section. 



conquest continued for 
centuries, and in the 
course of time the 
Romans grew rich upon 
the spoils of plundered 
cities. 

When the Romans 
became wealthy they 
were no longer satisfied 
with the simple life of 

their earlier days. They began to build fine houses, 
to adorn them with oriental rugs, Greek statues, and 
costly furnishings, and to surround them with beau- 
tiful gardens. They and their wives began to wear 




Floor plan. 
A FINE ROMAN HOUSE 



90 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



fine linen and silk instead of the plain woolen dress of 
the early Romans. New kinds of food were intro- 
duced. People began to recline on couches at dinner, 
after the eastern fashion. Troops of slaves did the 
work made necessary by these changes in the Roman 

mode of life. In fact, 

all the luxuries of the 
conquered countries were 
brought to Rome. 

All these things cost a 
great deal of money. So 
the Romans continued to 
plunder their provinces 
and to make the people 
of the provinces pay very 
heavy taxes. A class of 
rich tax-gatherers and 
bankers grew up at 
Rome. Money became 
the god of the Romans 
and they were willing to 
do anything to get it. 
In the earlier days each 
Roman had thought first 
of his duty to his country. Now every man was 
striving to get everything that he could for himself. 
Only a few of the Romans shared in the wealth 
stolen from the conquered lands. The mass of the 
people were poorer than ever. Once all Italy had 
been a land of small farms. Now rich men seized 
or bought the land. Great plantations, worked by 
slaves who were captured in the wars, took the place 




LIFE IN A ROMAN HOME 
This picture is from a restoration of a 
fine Roman house at Pompeii. 




ROMAIV EMPIRE 

AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT 
Under Trajan 98-117 A.D. 

SCALE OF MILES 



100 200 300 400 500 



Longitude West 0'^ Longitude 



East 10" from 



Greenwich 20 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 91 

of the small farms. There were slaves everywhere 
and the Romans were harsh masters. Sometimes 
the slaves rebelled against them, but these insurrec- 
tions were always put down with great cruelty. Mean- 
while the poorer Romans drifted into the city. Rome 
thus came to have a vast population of poor citizens 
who found it very hard to get the plainest kind of a 
living. Sometimes grain was sold to them at half 
price, or even given to them, by the government. 
Naturally people would not work when they could 
get food for nothing, and soon a large part of the 
population of Rome was living in vicious idleness 
at the public expense. 

The old Roman ideas of right and wrong no longer 
existed. Rome was corrupted by greed and power. 
The honest, hard-working Roman of the earlier days 
had become lazy and immoral. The loyalty and 
patriotism of the early republic were gone. The 
votes of the citizens were freely bought and sold. 
Rome, in conquering the world, had ruined her own 
people. 

There were still good men in Rome who saw these 
evils clearly. But most of them shrank from a struggle 
with the powerful rich men who controlled the govern- 
ment. The work of reform was begun by a noble 
young Roman named Tiberius Gracchus. His fii'st 
purpose was to restore the land to the people. In 
urging that this should be done he said, ^^The wild 
beasts of Italy have their dens, but the brave men 
who spill their blood for her are without homes or 
settled habitations. The private soldiers fight and 
die to advance the luxury of the great, and they are 



92 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



called masters of the world without having a sod to 
call their own." Though successful for a short time, 
Tiberius Gracchus was soon killed by the selfish 
Romans. Later his brilliant younger brother, Gains, 
took up the work of reform, only to meet the same 
fate. 

After the failure of the Gracchi, ambitious generals 
began to fight for power over the Roman world. 
.,.__^ Nearly a hundred years of civil strife 

followed. A master was needed to 
stop these wars and give the country 
peace. At last this master was found 
in Julius Caesar, the greatest of the 
Romans. Caesar had great plans for 
reform, but was killed by the envious 
and jealous Romans before he could 
carry them out. More civil war fol- 
lowed his death and finally Augustus 
Caesar rose to supreme power. Rome 
was henceforth to be ruled by one 
man with a great army to support 
him. The repubUc had become an 
empire. - - , 

^^ The establishment of the empire was a great blessing 
to the distracted people of the Roman world. Peace 
and order were once more established. The provinces 
were no longer robbed by selfish rich men at Rome, 
but were justly ruled by governors responsible to the 
emperor. Their frontiers were defended and their 
trade encouraged. Under the empire Roman civili- 
zation reached its highest development. The Roman 
emperors ruled the world for nearly five hundred years. 




JULIUS CE.SAR 
The greatest of the 
Romans. 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 



93 



The Age of Augustus, as the long reign of the first 
emperor is called, is the most brilliant period in Homan 




history. It was the 
boast of Augustus that 
he found Rome a city 
of brick and left it a 
city of marble. With 
the return of peace 
and order, hterature 
and art took on new 
life. Livy, the most 
famous Latin his- 
torian, pictured the 
noble men and the 
stirring scenes in the 
early history of Rome. 
Vergil and Horace, the 
greatest of Latin poets, 
wrote at this time, 
of Augustus. 



THE ROMAN FORUM 
The Forum was a public square in the heart 
of ancient Rome. In it the early Romans held 
their political meetings. Later the public build- 
mgs of the government stood about it. The 
Forum was the center of the Roman world. 

Jesus was born during the Age 



94 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

What the Romans did for the World. — The Roman 
Empire included nearly all the known world of its 
time. The first good gift that the Romans gave the 
world was peace. Before the countries composing 
the empire was conquered by the Romans, the various 



1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^1 


^P^ 






ifll 


*'■■;: ■vSAii«*iK^ 



THE APPIAN WAY 

This is one of the splendid roads which ran from Rome to all parts of the empire. 
It is still in use. 

tribes and peoples who lived in them had been almost 
constantly at war with each other. Under the rule 
of the Romans these countries enjoyed peace and 
order for several centuries. In many parts of the 
empire this long period of quiet gave an opportunity 
for civilized ways of living to develop. 

The Romans gave the people in their empire a 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 95 

better government than they had ever had before. 
The emperor and his officers ruled the empire and 
its provinces, but the people in the cities and towns 
were permitted to manage their local affairs in their 
own way. Our plan of letting the people in each city 
govern themselves is a Roman idea. The law of the 
Romans has had a great influence in making the 
laws of the various European countries and of America 
what they are now. 

The Romans united the world which they governed. 
They built magnificent paved roads leading from 
Rome to all parts of the empire. These roads were 
so sohdly constructed that many of them still remain 
to mark the lands where Rome has ruled. Over 
them people from all parts of the empire traveled 
to and fro. Along them flowed the commerce of the 
world. They helped to tie the empire together and 
to make it one in manners, customs, and ways of 
living. The best things in the civilizations of all 
the ancient countries were gathered together and 
called Roman. 

The Romans gave the world a common language. 
At first Latin was spoken only in Rome and its 
immediate vicinity. After the Romans had conquered 
Italy it spread to the entire peninsula. Later the 
soldiers, colonists, and merchants of the time carried 
the speech of the Romans to all the countries of 
southern and western Europe, where it was eagerly 
taken up by the natives. The Roman Empire fell, 
as we shall see, but Latin still lives as the foundation 
of the languages of Italy, France, and Spain. More- 
over there are so many Latin words in our own English 



96 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



language that we can scarcely speak a sentence with- 
out using some of them. 

All of this time the Romans had to defend their 
empire against dangerous enemies. Beyond the 
Rhine and the Danube were warUke tribes of bar- 
barians who were always threatening to invade the 




" THE COLISEUM 
This was a great amphitheater in which both men and wild beasts fought for 
the amusement of the Roman people. It is said to have seated more than 80,000 
spectators. 

rich lands of the Roman provinces. For hundreds 
of years Roman armies defended the frontier against 
these dangerous foes, and thus gave the people of 
southern and western Europe an opportunity to 
develop their civilization. 

The Romans did much to introduce and develop 
civilized ways of living in Europe. Their colonists 
cleared and improved the land, and built houses, 
roads, and bridges. Everywhere in the provinces 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 



97 



splendid cities grew up to become centers of Roman 
life and influence. 

The Romans were famous builders. Their cities all 
over the empire contained amphitheaters and circuses 
for shows and games, arches and columns in memory 




THE RUINS OF A ROMAN AQUEDUCT 

The water supply of Rome was brought from the mountains through pipes 
supported on these arches. 

of Roman victories, great aqueducts which brought 
abundant supplies of pure water, and splendid court 
houses and other public buildings. The builders of 
modern Europe and America are indebted for much of 
their knowledge to the architects of ancient Rome. 

All that the Greeks and the earher civilized peoples 
of the East had learned they taught to the Romans. 



98 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

The Romans saved this knowledge from destruction 
by barbarous tribes and handed it on to the peoples 
of western Europe. In the course of time these 
Europeans brought it to America. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Find all the geographical differences between Italy and Greece. 

2. Read the story of Horatius as it is told in Macaulay's "Lays of 
Ancient Rome." 

3. Have we classes of people today who are in any way hke the 
patricians and plebeians of ancient Rome? 

4. Draw a map showing aU the countries in the Roman Empire. 

5. What quaHties of the Romans do you admire? Did they possess 
any which you dislike? 

6. Do roads help to bind our country together as they did the prov- 
inces of the Roman Empire? 

7. Make a list of all the things that we have inherited from the 
Romans. 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 
Ancient Histories by West, Westerman, Goodspeed, Webster, Bots- 

ford, and Myers. 
Seignobos: History of Ancient Civilization. 
Botsf ord : History of Rome. 
Shuckburgh : History of Rome. 
Abbott: Short History of Rome. 

Preston and Dodge: The Private Life of the Romans. 
Inge: Social Life in Rome under the Ccesars. 
Church: Roman Life in the Days of Cicero. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Tappan : The Story of the Roman People. 
Haaren and Poland: Famous Men of Rome. 
Yonge: Young Folks' History of Rome. 
Guerber: The Story of the Romans. 
Macaulay: Lays of Ancierit Rome. 
Harding: The City of the Seven Hills. 
Church: Stories from Vergil. 
Clarke: The Story of Coesar. 
Gould: The Children's Plutarch. 
Church; The Lords of the World. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 



The Life and Teachings of Jesus. — In the days of 
the first Roman emperor, Jesus was born in Palestine. 
At that time, Palestine was a province of Rome, and 
the Jews were cruelly 
treated by the Roman 
governors. The Jews 
yearned for their 
political freedom, and 
looked for a deliverer. 
When Jesus arose as 
a teacher and leader 
of his people, his lofty 
principles and moral 
courage and personal 
magnetism led his 
disciples and followers 
to believe that he was 
the one for whom the 
Jews were looking to 
deliver them from the 
yoke of the Romans. 

Upon one occasion, they made a processional entry 
into Jerusalem, the capital of the nation, with their 
master at its head, and proclaimed him ^^Kingof the 
Jews." This proclamation was considered treason by 

(99) 




A STREET SCENE IN JERUSALEM 



100 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

the Romans, and in consequence thereof, Jesus was 
seized and punished with crucifixion — the Roman mode 
of dealing with pohtical offenders. 

The teachings of Jesus seemed very strange to the 
men of the Roman world. The Greeks and the Romans 
beheved that there were many gods, whom they tried 
to please by offering sacrifices to them. Jesus taught 
that there is but one God, and that the way to please 
him is by loving all men and trying to help them. 
He taught that love is the greatest thing in the world. 
Jesus gave the world its finest rule of conduct when 
he said, ^^ Whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them." 

Jesus was the first teacher of real democracy in the 
world. We have seen that many of the Greek cities 
had democratic governments, but only a small body 
of citizens had a part in them. In every Greek city 
there were many slaves and other residents who had 
no voice in the government. Jesus never made a 
difference between men. He taught that all are 
equal in the sight of God. As men have more and 
more come to believe this, they have striven to win 
equal rights and equal privileges for all. Real 
democracy means that all men shall enjoy equal rights 
and equal opportunities. 

The religions of Greece and Rome did little to 
teach men to be good or to do right. Jesus taught 
that all men everywhere ought to be good. In his 
own pure and unselfish life he gave the world its 
highest ideal of character. His teachings have never 
been fully adopted even in Christian countries. The 
best of men fall far short of following closely in his 



BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 101 



footsteps. But in spite of all this, his life and his 
words have been the greatest influence in developing 
the civiUzation that we now enjoy. 

The Beginnings of the Church. — When Jesus was 
crucified he had only a 
little band of followers 
or disciples. The first 
converts to the Chris- 
tian religion were 
made in Jerusalem 
and in the other cities 
of Palestine. At first 
it was thought that 
the new faith was 
intended only for the 
Jews. Then Saint 
Peter, the leader of 
the apostles, taught 
that the message of 
the Christ was for all 
peoples. Peter is 

beUeved to have been the founder of the church at 
Rome. 

Among the early converts to the Christian faith 
was a Jewish tentmaker, Saul of Tarsus. After he 
became a Christian he was called Paul. This great 
man did more than any one else to make Christianity 
a religion for all men. For thirty years he traveled 
far and wide in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, telling 
the story of Jesus with burning eloquence. Before 
his death he had gathered together in many of the 
cities of the eastern Roman Empire little groups of 




PAUL PR EACH I XG AT ATHENS 



102 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

men and women who were trying to live the Christian 
Ufe. 

Paul wrote letters to many of the churches which 
he had founded, explaining the teachings of Jesus 
as he understood them. Four different accounts 
of the life and work of Jesus were also written. These 
narratives and letters, with a few other early Christian 
writings, make up the New Testament of the Bible. 

At first the Christian churches were little groups of 
believers, who met to worship together. The Chris- 
tians of each community thought of themselves as 
brothers and gave freely of their property to support 
the widows, the poor, and the sick in their midst. 
Very soon it seemed best that certain officers should 
be appointed in each church to attend to the necessary 
business. Those who took care of the property and 
looked after the wants of the poor were called deacons. 
The leaders in each church, who taught the other mem- 
bers and celebrated the religious ceremonies, were 
called elders or priests. Besides these officers there 
was in each city a head of the church called the 
bishop. 

At first all these church officers continued to earn 
their own living just as the rest of the church members 
did. As their duties increased they gradually came 
to be separated from the other members and supported 
by them. The officers now came to be called the 
clergy. 

The Romans Persecute the Christians. — From its 
beginning the faith of the Christians was tried by 
persecution. Jesus, its great founder, was crucified. 
Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned to death. 



BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 103 

Nearly all the twelve apostles paid for their faith 
with their lives. Paul, the '^Apostle to the Gentiles/' 
was attacked again and again, and at last his life was 
taken. 

When the Christian religion began to spread over 
the Roman world it was hated by the pagan people 
everywhere. There were some reasons for this feeling. 
The Romans believed in a great many deities. For 
example, one of their gods presided over war and 
another over commerce. They had one goddess who 
watched the flocks and another who caused the grain 
to ripen. The Romans were willing to add the God 
of the Christians to those that they already worshipped, 
but they were not willing to throw away their own 
gods. This, however, was the very thing that the 
Christians demanded. They declared that the gods 
of Rome were false gods and that they must not be 
worshipped. Consequently they refused to do any- 
thing that would honor or even recognize the gods 
of Rome. They also refused to worship the Roman 
emperor as a god as the law required. They would 
not attend the religious feasts or entertainments of 
the time, nor go to the fights of the gladiators, nor 
even send their children to the schools. Because the 
Christians thus refused to join in the social and 
religious life of the people about them they were 
called ^^ haters of mankind." It is not strange that 
such people were misunderstood. 

The Roman people feared the Christians almost 
as much as they disliked them. All sorts of false 
stories were told about the awful things they did in 
their secret meetings. If any great disaster happened 



104 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

the Christians were thought to have caused it. One 
of the early Christian writers says, ^'If the Tiber 
rises, if the Nile does not rise, if the heavens give no 
rain, if there is an earthquake, famine, or pestilence, 
straightway the cry is ^The Christians to the lions/'' 
For a time at first the followers of Christ had 
attracted little attention from the Roman govern- 




Vrrni a vo-inilng hy Gerome 
"THE CHRISTIANS TO THE LIONS" 

A group of Christians have been condemned to be torn to death by wild beasts 
in the Coliseum. Such spectacles delighted the Roman people. 

ment. The emperors did not care what the Christians 
believed. But when they learned that the Christians 
scorned the gods of the nation, would not serve in 
the army, and were holding secret meetings contrary 
to the law, they decided to suppress them by force. 

At intervals for nearly three hundred years the 
Christians were persecuted throughout the empire. 
During this time there were thousands of victims. 
Some were tortured in every way that the cruelty 



BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 105 

of their persecutors could invent. Many were be- 
headed, or burned, or crucified. Great numbers 
were thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheater. 

In facing this awful persecution the early Christians 
gave us the noblest example of heroic courage, fortitude 
in suffering, and unfaltering devotion to a great cause 
in all the history of the world. When Blandina, a 
young girl, was tortured from morning until night 
to force her to give up her faith, she continued stead- 
fast in saying, ^'I am a Christian; among us no evil 
is done." When the aged bishop. Poly carp, was 
commanded to curse Christ, he answered, ''Six and 
eighty years have I served Him, and He has done me 
nothing but good, and how could I curse Him. my 
Lord and my Saviour!" 

Instead of crushing out the religion of Christ, 
persecution onl}^ strengthened it and caused it to 
spread. The Christians who suffered were called 
martyrs, which means witnesses. The martyrs were 
steadily convincing people of the truth of a faith 
whose followers willingly and even joyously gave their 
lives for it. It was true, as one of the early Christians 
said, that ''The blood of the martyrs became the 
seed of the church." 

The Triumph of the Church. — The persecution of 
the Christians was most severe in the third century. 
Yet it was just at that time that the followers of 
Christ were increasing more rapidly than ever before. 
The inspiring influence of the martyrs was not the 
only reason for this growth. At a time when men 
were losing faith in the old gods of Greece and Rome 
the Christians were filled with zeal and energy. 



106 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Multitudes of people turned eagerly to a religion 
that taught them to be loving and helpful to each 
other in this life and gave them a sure hope of a better 
life in another world. 

The existence of the Roman Empire itself helped 
the missionaries of the new faith to do their work. 
Its splendid roads gave ready access to every part 
of the known world. The fact that the Latin language 
was known and used everywhere made it easy to 
preach the gospel to all people. By building up its 
empire Rome had prepared the way for the rapid 
growth of the Christian religion. 

The story is told that as the emperor, Constantine, 
was going into battle he thought he saw a cross of 
light in the sky with these words upon it: ''In this 
sign thou shalt conquer." Constantine won the 
battle, and soon afterward, early in the fourth century, 
he issued an order saying, ''We grant to the Christians 
and to all others free choice to follow the mode of 
worship they may wish." From this time the perse- 
cution of the Christians ceased. 

After it met with the favor of the emperor, Chris- 
tianity spread more rapidly than ever. Great numbers 
of people soon accepted it. Belief in the gods of 
Greece and Rome steadily passed away. Before 
the end of the fourth century another emperor pro- 
hibited the old pagan worship under pain of death. 
All the pagan temples were now torn down or changed 
into Christian churches. 

This triumph of the Christian church was a long 
step toward better living in the world. The orphans, 
the poor, and the sick are far better cared for in 



BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 107 

Christian countries than in pagan lands. After 
Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire 
the slaves were better treated, many of them were 
freed, and the brutal games of the gladiators were 
finally stopped. 

While Christianity was winning its way in the Roman 
Empire the organization of the church was developing. 
In the course of time the bishops in the great cities 
Uke Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch, and 
Jerusalem came to be looked upon as the leaders in 
the church. After the emperors made Christianity 
the religion of the empire these bishops became officers 
of the state. They were no longer poor and persecuted, 
but rich and powerful. 

It is believed that Peter, the leader of the apostles, 
was the first bishop of Rome and that his successors 
have inherited his authority as the head of the church. 
In time the bishop of Rome came to be called the 
pope; and after the Roman Empire fell, he became 
the most influential person in Europe. Rome had 
so long been the capital of the world that it was 
natural for people to receive commands from it. 
Moreover, the missionaries sent out by the bishop of 
Rome had done so much to spread the Christian faith 
in western Europe that the people of that region 
looked up to him with affection and loyalty. 

How the Monasteries Began.— In the days when 
Christianity was first winning its way in the world 
there were many men who thought that one could 
not become a perfect Christian while living among 
other people. Instead of fighting against the wicked- 
ness in the world about them these men fled from 



108 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

their homes into the desert or the wilderness. Here 
each of them Hved all alone, because he thought 
that such a life was the surest way to win salvation. 
The men who lived in this way were called hermits. 

The hermits soon found out that they could not 
get on for any great length of time without associating 
with other people. So they came together in little 
groups or communities. At first each hermit dwelt 
in his own hut. Presently the members of the com- 
munity began to live under one roof. The house 
which this group of men built for themselves was 
called a monastery. The men who lived in the 
monastery were monks. When a group of women 
lived in this way their dwelling place was a convent 
and the inmates were called nuns. 

The monks promised obedience to an elder brother 
in the monastery who was called the abbot. They 
also promised not to marry and not to own property 
of any kind. In time there were monasteries every- 
where in the Christian world. As we shall see, they 
played a great part in civilizing the barbarians who 
overthrew the Roman Empire. 



QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. How do the people in countries that are not Christian number the 
years? 

2. Try to find out how the Greeks and the Romans counted time. 

3. Is our government a real democracy? 

4. How are the poor cared for today? 

5. What is meant by the statement, "The blood of the martyrs 
became the seed of the church?" 

6. In what ways is the Christian religion better than the religions 
of Greece and Rome? 

7. Find upon the map all the cities mentioned in this chapter. 



BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 109 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Emerton : Introduction to the Middle Ages, Chapter IX. 

Fisher: The Beginnings of Christianity. 

Farrar: The Life of Christ. 

Rhees: The Life of Jesus of Nazareth. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Tappan: The Old, Old Story. 
Stewart: The Shepherd of Us All. 
Lang: The Book of Saints and Heroes. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 

The Early Germans. — North of the Alps, and beyond 
the Rhine and the Danube, lay a vast region covered 
with dense forests and endless marshes. Besides the 




From a pamting hy Tliumann 

AN EARLY GERMAN VICTOR 
The leader of a German tribe and his followers are returning from a battle with 
the Romans, bringing prisoners and spoils with them. 

Germany of today it included the present Holland, 
Denmark, and part of Austria. High mountain ranges 
kept the people of this section of Europe from easily 
coming in contact with the early civilization upon the 
shores of the Mediterranean. Hence, they were very 

(110) 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 111 

much slower than the Greeks or the ItaUans in adopt- 
ing civihzed ways of living. 

The Romans called the people who lived in the 
country beyond the Rhine and the Danube the Ger- 
mans. Tacitus, a great Latin historian, who wrote a 
famous book about the Germans, tells us that they were 
all large men wdth long yellow hair and fierce blue eyes. 
He says that they loved war and thought it tame and 
stupid to acquire by 
the sweat of toil 
what they might win 
by their blood. The 
Romans had good 
reason to know that 
the Germans were 
fierce fighters, for 

, ,, \, A VILLAGE OF THE EARLY GERMANS 

though they often 

tried to conquer them they never succeeded in doing it. 

When we first hear of the Germans they were still 
barbarians. They lived in rude huts near which the 
women and old men cultivated small patches of land. 
When not engaged in war the men hunted in the 
forests or fished in the streams. The greater part of 
their food consisted of milk, cheese, and meat from 
their cattle. The warriors were fond of feasting, 
drinking, and gambling. In many respects the early 
Germans lived much as the American Indians did 
when the white man first became acquainted with 
them. 

Unlike the early Greeks and Romans, the Germans 
did not like to live in cities. They built their homes 
in the country or in small villages. A group of neigh- 




112 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 




WODEN 
The chief god of the 
Germans. They thought 
that he was the ruler of 
heaven and earth. 



boring villages formed a tribe. Some of the German 

tribes had kings, others elected their strongest and 
bravest warrior to lead them in 
battle. Important matters were 
decided at a meeting of all the 
fighting men of the tribe. 

The Germans worshipped the 
powers of nature: the sun, the 
moon, fire, and the seasons. They 
thought these forces were gods and 
goddesses and they had a name for 
each one of them. Woden, for 
example, was the father of all the 
gods and the creator of the world. 

Thor was the fierce god of war who made the thunder 

with his mighty hammer. The names of some of the 

days in our week remind us of these old German 

deities. Wednesday, for instance, 

is Woden's day and Thursday 

means Thor's day. The Germans 

had no temples, but each man 

prayed to the gods in his own 

home, and the priests held public 

worship in sacred groves. Though 

they were not yet civilized, the 

early Germans had many admir- 
able quahties. They reverenced 

women, told the truth, and were 

earnest, brave, and strong. They 

had an intense love of freedom, 

and resisted with all their might every effort to take it 

from them. 




THOR 

Thor was believed to be 
the son of Woden. He 
fought the ice-giants with 
his hammer; so he was the 
enemy of winter. 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 



113 



The Germans, like the Greeks, told many stories 
about the exploits of their early heroes. The most 
famous of these German hero tales was finally written 
down in a great poem called the Song of the Nibelungs. 
This poem is about the life and death of Siegfried who 
slew a terrible dragon with his magic sword and won a 
great treasure. But this treasure brought a curse 
upon every one who owned it. Siegfried was slain by 



.d\i 



_,^<r- 



f^i%^^ 







GERMAN WARRIORS CROSSING A RIVER 

the cruel Hagen but was finally revenged after many 
fierce conflicts in which the Germans delighted. The 
many stories told about the magic treasure which 
Siegfried won are now sung and acted in the operas of 
Wagner, some of the grandest music in all the world. 
The Fall of the Roman Empire. — As their numbers 
increased it became harder and harder for the Germans 
to make a living by hunting and fishing. Whole 
tribes of them began to wander southward into the 
rich lands within the Roman provinces in search of new 
homes. For centuries the Romans were fighting to 



114 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

defend their empire against these fierce invaders. 
Many Germans were killed, others were captured and 
sold into slavery. Sometimes whole tribes were driven 
back across the Rhine or the Danube. 

All this time the Germans were learning from the 
more civilized Romans. Many of them joined the 
Roman armies, where they soon became the best 
soldiers of the time. The Romans permitted some to 
settle on the waste lands within the empire. Grad- 
ually the Germans learned to make better tools and 
weapons, to use money in trading, and to do many 
things as the Romans did. During the centuries while 
all this was going on the German tribes were united 
to form nations. The Goths, the Franks, and the 
Saxons were the most important of these nations, but 
there were many others. 

In the meantime the Roman Empire was steadily 
growing weaker. A few men were wealthy but most 
of the people were very poor. Sometimes the taxes 
were so heavy that the people could not pay them. 
The wars and the frequent epidemics of disease which 
swept over the country killed great numbers of the 
inhabitants. The Romans were no longer the brave 
and warlike people who had conquered the world. 

At last the time came when the Romans could no 
longer defend their northern frontier. The Germans 
poured over it like a flood. \\Tiole nations came at 
once, the warriors bringing their wives and children 
and all their property with them. For many years 
they wandered over the western part of the Roman 
Empire, fighting and plundering as they pleased. 
There was no longer any power in Rome to stop them. 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 115 

The West Goths were the first of the successful 
German invaders. After crossing the Danube they 
destroyed a great army sent to stop them. The 
Roman emperor was slain in this battle. Led by their 
brave young king, Alaric, the Goths marched into 
Greece and then into Italy. Here Alaric besieged the 
city of Rome itself. Not until they were dying of 



IIH 


ip»l|i^ 


MMB 




' ' '^^^^■^■^■i 


^^■■■1 




^X 


Wm 


llifl 


ijiilMSB 


MB!i 




BHk y- 


" 


W #^^ " ' 


BH ^^^^^E^^S 


i^ki 




JKK^kk^ ^^ ' 1 


^S 


m "^I^Si 




I^H 






^9^ 






^■^H 




n 








1 



Frtm a patnting dy TMersth 
ALARIC, THE GOTHIC CHIEFTAIN, IN ATHENS 

hunger did the citizens of the capital ask terms of the 
Gothic king. ''Give me all your gold, all your silver, 
all your movable property, and all your barbarian 
slaves," he said, ''or the siege goes on." "What, 
then," they asked, "will you leave us?'^ "Your 
lives," answered Alaric. 

But Alaric let the people of Rome keep a part 
of their property. Laden with plunder, his people 
moved on toward the south of Italy. It seems to have 
been his purpose to conquer Sicily and then pass over 



116 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

into Africa. Before he could do this Alaric suddenly- 
died. His followers forced their Roman captives to 
turn the channel of a little river. Then they buried 
their king in the bed of the stream, turned the water 
back into its old course, and killed all the slaves who 
had done the work that the grave of Alaric might never 
be known. After the death of their great king the 
West Goths wandered on, fighting and plundering as 
they went, until at last they found homes in southern 
Gaul and Spain. 

Meanwhile swarms of fighting men broke over the 
Rhine frontier and overran the western provinces of 
the empire. The Burgundians settled in the valley of 
the Rhone. The Franks took possession of northern 
Gaul. The Vandals passed into Africa, where they 
established themselves on the site of ancient Carthage. 

After they settled by the sea, the Vandals soon 
became a race of bold and merciless pirates, a terror to 
all the people who dwelt on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean. Forty-five years after Alaric captured Rome, 
the Vandals visited it and carried off every valuable 
thing that they could find. 

These great migrations of the German tribes took 
place in the fourth and fifth centuries. In the year 
476 the last Roman emperor in the West was driven 
from his throne. The world empire of Rome ceased 
to exist. All western Europe was in the hands of the 
various German peoples. The eastern Roman Empire, 
with its capital at Constantinople, lived for a thou- 
sand years longer, but it had very little to do with 
the history of the West. 

The New Kingdoms.— The hunger for more land 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 117 



was the chief motive which drove the German peoples 
to overrun the empire of Rome. When they first 
came into its rich provinces they plundered the cities 
and laid waste the country. After years of fighting 
with the Romans, and often among themselves, the 
Germans began to set- 
tle in the lands which 
they had taken. In 
the course of time they 
learned civilized ways 
of living from the 
Roman people among 
whom they dwelt. 
The Germans and the 
Romans together 
made the beginnings 
of the nations of mod- 
ern Europe. 

Theodoric, King of 
the East Goths, was 
the greatest of the 
barbarian chieftains. 
He had spent his boy- 
hood at Constantinople, where he had learned to live 
like the Romans without ceasing to be a German at 
heart. When he became a man he led his people 
into Italy, defeated the German warriors who had 
overthrown the last Roman emperor in the West, and 
made himself king of the country. 

Theodoric ruled Italy well. He restored order in 
the country, repaired the roads and buildings, encour- 
aged learning, and made wise laws. Although 




INTERIOR OF A CHURCH AT 
RAVENNA IN ITALY 
This beautiful church was built by 
Theodoric. It is one of the oldest churches in 
Europe. 



118 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Theodoric's kingdom did not last long after his death, 
the East Goths and the Lombards, another German 
nation which came into the country later, did much 
to make modern Italy. The Lombards settled in the 
valley of the Po, which is called Lombardy to this day. 

The Franks were the most important of all the 
German nations which settled on Roman soil. When 
we first hear of them they were living along the lower 
Rhine. The Franks did not leave their own country, 
hke the other Germanic invaders of the empire, and 
go wandering over the world in search of new homes. 
They kept their original lands along the Rhine and 
gradually added to them by conquest, until they 
ruled a large part of western Europe. 

Clovis was the first great chieftain of the Franks. 
By hard fighting he took northern Gaul from the last 
Roman general in that part of the empire. Soon the 
Burgundians were conquered and the valley of the 
Rhone was added to the kingdom of the Franks. In 
his next war Clovis drove the West Goths over the 
Pyrenees into Spain, where they helped to make the 
Spanish nation of today. The Franks now possessed 
all Gaul, which from this time is called France. 

Mohammed was a great rehgious teacher, who lived 
in Arabia in the seventh century. ^^ There is but one 
God, and Mohammed is his prophet," was the belief 
of his followers. The Arabs* began to spread this 
faith by the sword and soon overran western Asia and 
northern Africa. While the Mohammedans in the 
east threatened Constantinople, the Arabs from Africa 
conquered the Gothic kingdom in Spain and crossed 
the Pyrenees into France. All Christian Europe was 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 



119 



in danger of falling into the hands of the victorious 
Mohammedans. 

Charles Martel and Charlemagne. — In this hour of 
peril, Europe was saved by the valor of the Franks. 
Their famous leader, Charles, met the Arab invaders 
at Tours in central France with a host of fighting men 
from all the Frankish lands. 
All day long the wild charges 
of the Arab horsemen beat in 
vain against the battle hne of 
the Franks. When the next 
morning dawned the Arabs had 
fled. Tours is one of the most 
important battles in the history 
of the world. It was a struggle 
for life between the Christians 
and the Mohammedans. The 
great soldier who led the Franks 
to victory and saved Europe for 
Christianity was henceforth 
called Charles Martel, which 
means Charles the Hammer. 

For many years the Franks extended their kingdom 
east of the Rhine, into the early home of the German 
tribes. These conquests continued until the dominions 
of Charlemagne, the grandson of Charles Martel, 
included France, nearly all of the present Germany 
and Austria, and the Lombard kingdom in Italy as 
well. Charlemagne planned to revive the western 
Roman Empire, and in the year 800 he was crowned 
emperor at Rome. 

But after the death of Charlemagne, it proved 




CHARLEMAGNE ON 
HIS THRONE 



120 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

impossible to hold his vast empire together. Presently 
it was divided among his three grandsons in such a 
way that Charles had France, Lewis was given the 
country east of the Rhine, and Lothair ruled in 
Italy. In this division we see the beginnings of 
the present countries of France, Germany, and 
Italy. After three or four hundred years of war and 
confusion following the fall of the Roman Empire 
we find the nations of modern Europe growing up 
in its place. 

The Mingling of the Germans and the Romans. — 
Out of the mingling of the Germans with the inhabitants 
of the Roman Empire came the peoples and the lan- 
guages which we find in western Europe today. The 
people of the Roman provinces were more numerous 
than the Germans who came to live among them. 
The new comers and the older inhabitants had no 
particular dislike for each other. The two races soon 
began to intermarry. After a few centuries we no 
longer find Romans and Germans but Frenchmen, 
Spaniards, and Italians. 

Everywhere in the western Roman Empire the 
people spoke the Latin language which they had learned 
from their Roman rulers. The Franks, the Goths, 
and the other German nations which came into the 
empire soon began to try to speak the language of the 
people among whom they lived. They spoke it very 
imperfectly, and naturally introduced some of their 
own words into it. In this way Latin was much 
changed. The new dialects grew to be the French, 
Spanish, and Italian languages of today. Because they 
are so much like the speech of the Romans from which 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 121 

they were formed, French, Spanish, and Italian are 
called the Romance languages. 

The Germans who settled in the empire were rude 
and ignorant barbarians. They cared little for civiliza- 
tion and destroyed much that the Romans had built 
up. After their victory, many of the Roman cities 
became little better than fortified villages. In some 
cases the fine public buildings of the Romans were torn 
down and the stone used to build walls to defend the 
towns. Works of art were destroyed or neglected. 
The schools ceased to exist. The Roman inhabitants 
of the empire became more and more like the bar- 
barians. For several centuries western Europe fell 
back into a half civilized condition. 

But all this time the Germans were developing more 
civiKzed ways of living. On every side were the 
remains of Roman life. Every day they met people 
who knew far more than they did. They could not 
help being influenced by these surroundings. But of 
all the civilizing influences with which the Germans 
came in contact the Christian rehgion was the most 
important. 

Some of the German tribes had been visited by 
Christian missionaries before they began their move- 
ment into the empire. Ulfilas, a missionary to the 
Goths, translated the Bible into the language of that 
people. In making this translation he omitted the 
war stories in the Books of the Kings, because he 
thought the Goths were already too warlike. 

Many of the Germans were still pagans when they 
entered the empire. Through the heroic efforts of 
it§ missionaries the Christian religion slowly gained 



122 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



ground among them. The story is told that when 
Clovis, the great king of the Franks, was hard pressed 
in a battle, he fell upon his knees and vowed that if 
the God of his Christian wife, Clotilda, would give him 

the victory he would become 
His follower. Clovis won the 
battle, and shortly afterward 
was baptized with three thou- 
sand of his men. It was not, 
however, through such sud- 
den conversions as this, but 
as a result of the patient 
teaching of the Christian 
monks and missionaries that 
the German peoples were 
finally won to the Christian 
faith. 

After the Germans in the 
Roman lands accepted Chris- 
tianity, missionaries were 
sent to their kinsmen east 
of the Rhine. Saint Boni- 
face, an Englishman, was the 
great apostle to the Germans 
east of the Rhine. With burning zeal, this heroic man 
devoted his life to preaching the Christian faith to 
the fierce warriors in the forests of Germany and to 
organizing churches and founding monasteries in their 
country. His life was filled with acts of the greatest 
daring and fortitude. On one occasion he defied the 
pagan gods of the Germans and the wrath of their 
worshippers by cutting down a great oak which the 



1 




>''v^^||HB^H 


1 


1 


1 




^^9HK"% 


M 


H^ 


B 




fwS^^^ 


X^ 


mm 


i 


'J 1 


m") 


i 


M 


1 




f^^wmrt'^'^^^ 


M 


%p 


15 




^^ 


m 


^ 


1 




wt-^^ 


^■1 


f ^«oP 


1 




ml ' 4 


^Br 


#^g 


w^ 




;^HB f^ ^ 


^B 1 








H "^ 




^^s 


U 




yP k^i 


w 


^^D 


I 






1 


1 



From a painting by Blanc 
THE BAPTISM OF CLOVIS 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 123 



people held sacred to Woden and building a Christian 
chapel from its timbers. This story is beautifully 
told by Henry Van Dyke in ''The First Christmas 
Tree." Through the efforts of Saint Boniface, and 
of other Christian missionaries who continued his 
work, the last 
German barbari- 
ans were won for 
the church. 

Our Debt to 
the German Peo- 
ples. — We have 
seen that the men 
who Uved before 
the dawn of his- 
tory, the Egyp- 
tians and the 
Babylonians, the 
Hebrews, the 
Greeks, the Ro- 
mans, and the 
founder of Chris- 
tianity, all did 
much to make the 
world what it is 
today. The early 
Germans, who were the ancestors of most of the 
modern European nations, made an important addi- 
tion to what all these had done. They had a large 
part in giving us our present civilization. 

The first great gift of the German peoples to our 
modern world was their own sturdy manliness. When 




From an old print 
ST. BONIFACE CUTTING DOWN THE 
SACRED OAK 



124 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

they came into the Roman Empire, its people were 
worn out with many wars and with wicked ways of 
living. The Germans filled western Europe with fresh 
blood and youthful vigor. From their union with the 
Roman inhabitants came the peoples who have done 
the larger share of the work of the world ever since the 
fall of Rome. The English, Scotch, Dutch, Germans, 
Scandinavians, French, Spanish, and Italians, who 
have become Americans, are, wholly or in part, of 
Germanic origin. Thus the early German peoples 
were our own ancestors. 

The early Germans gave the world new ideas and 
new institutions as well as new blood. Our townships 
and counties, our laws and our lawmaking bodies 
at our state capitals and at Washington, have grown 
from the ways in which the early Germans managed 
their affairs. They were a proud, free, and liberty 
loving people. This spirit they have handed on to us. 



QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. What European countries of today were included in the Roman 
Empire? 

2. What is meant by "the love of freedom"? Do we have it? 

3. What virtues did the early Germans think most praiseworthy? 

4. Great numbers of foreigners come into our country every year. 
How does their coming differ from the coming of the German people 
into the Roman Empire? 

5. Look up the meaning of ''vandalism." Where do we get this 
word? 

6. What people before the Franks had saved Europe from Asiatic 
invaders? 

7. W^hat German tribes are mentioned in this chapter? Associate 
each of them with some country in modern Europe. 

8. Make a list of all the peoples, so far mentioned in this book, who 
helped to give us our civilization. 



BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 125 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Emerton: An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages. 

Church: The Beginning of the Middle Ages. 

Henderson : A Short History of Germany. 

Seignobos : History of Mediccval and Modern Civilization, Chapters I-V. 

Adams: Civilization during the Middle Ages, Chapters IV, V, VII. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Haaren and Poland: Famous Men of the Middle Ages. 

Button : Little Stories of Germany. 

Van Dyke: The First Christmas Tree. 

Oilman: "In the German Woods Long Ago" in Magna Charta Stories. 

Tappan : European Hero Stories. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 

The Island of Britain. — Great Britain and Ireland 
are islands in the Atlantic Ocean close to the western 
coast of Europe. All Americans who are of English, 
Scotch, Irish, or Welsh descent may look upon these 
islands as their old home. These races from the 
British Islands have done more to make our country 
than all the people who have come to America from 
the continent of Europe. We speak the Enghsh 
language. Our ways of governing ourselves and our 
habits and ideas are much hke those of the Enghsh 
race. For these reasons we shall give especial atten- 
tion to the story of the making of England. 

The island of Great Britain, which includes England, 
Scotland, and Wales, is nearly twice the size of 
Pennsylvania or a little larger than the state of Kansas. 
It is so near the continent of Europe that on a clear 
day the white cliffs of Dover may be seen from the 
coast of France. It has always been easy for the people 
of Britain and of the neighboring continent to pass 
back and forth across this narrow sea, yet this same bit 
of water has often guarded the people of the island 
against their enemies on the mainland. 

Nature has done much to help the inhabitants of 
Great Britain to make a hving. The soil in the valleys 
is fertile. Great crops of grain and vegetables are 

(126) 



BRITISH ISLES 

SCALE OF MILES 



Over 3000 tt. 
1500-3000 ft. 




Copyright 1913 by the 
Juliu C.Wrasiun Co 



8 IjOiigilude 



Green wieli 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 



127 



grown, but most of the country is too cool to bring 
the finer fruits to perfection. Nowhere else in the world 
can better horses, cattle, and sheep be found. The 
surrounding seas abound in fish. Tin, copper, and 
iron are plentiful in the hills and the whole country 
is rich in coal. There are many fine harbors on the 
coast, and numerous rivers made it easy for the early 
traders to carry their goods far 
into the interior. 

The British Islands are as far 
north as Labrador, but the south- 
west winds, which blow from the 
Atlantic Ocean nearly all the 
year, give them a mild climate. 
These warm wet winds from the 
ocean, breaking against the moun- 
tains of Ireland, Scotland, and 
Wales, give those countries too 
much mist and rain, but bring 
enough moisture to England to 
make its vegetation grow luxuri- 
antly. The warm moist cUmate of the British Islands 
clothes them in a vivid green. It gives them noble forest 
trees, beautiful flowers, and some of the most charm- 
ing landscapes in the world. Truly did Shakespeare, 
the greatest of English poets, call his native land — 

"This fortress built by Nature for herself 
Against infection and the hand of war; 
This happy breed of men, this httle world, 
This precious stone set in the silver sea, 
Which serves it in the office of a wall, 
Or as a moat defensive to a house, 
Against the envy of less happier lands." 




Cov^- Undirauod d- Underuood 
ENGLISH LANDSCAPE 



128 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



The Angles and the Saxons. — The island of Britain 
was conquered by the Romans in the first century. 
For more than three hundred years it was a Roman 
province. During this time the Romans cleared and 
drained much of the land, built roads, worked the mines, 
and introduced Roman ways of living. But the native 
Britons never adopted the Roman ways so completely 
as did the people of Gaul and Spain. 

When Rome could no longer defend her empire 
against the swarm of barbarians from the north, she 

abandoned Britain 
to its fate. The 
barbarous German 
tribes across the 
North Sea soon 
began to visit the 
island with fire and 
sword. The Brit- 
ons defended them- 
selves as best they 
could, but in the end their country, like the other 
provinces of the Roman Empire, was overrun by the 
Germans. Two of the German tribes, the Angles 
and the Saxons, were the most important of those 
that settled in Britain. England simply means 
Angle-land and the English people are frequently 
called the Anglo-Saxons. 

From this you see that the earliest fatherland of the 
English race was in the northwestern corner of Ger- 
many. In the rude and simple life which they lived 
in their little villages or in the open country, in their 
grim joy in hard fighting, and in their religious ideas. 




-'^-^K^§e^^^^^.#^-^^ 



SAXON SHIPS NEARING THE COAST 
OF ENGLAND 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 129 

the Angles and Saxons were like the rest of the German 
peoples who overthrew the Roman Empire and helped 
to make the nations of modern Europe. 

Fortunately, these earliest ancestors of the English 
have told us what kind of men they were. As he is 
dying of wounds received in battle, one of their kings 
says, ''I have this folk ruled this fifty winters. Lives 
there no folk-king of kings about me — not any one of 
them— dare in the war-strife welcome my onset. I 
have held my own fairly, sought not to snare men; 
oath never sware I falsely against right. So for all 
this may I be glad at heart now, sick though I sit 
here wounded with death-wounds!" 

The English were a sturdy folk, full of vigor and of 
the joy of hfe. They cared more for a good name than 
for life itself. ''Well shall a man do when in the strife 
he minds but of winning longsome renown, nor for his 
hfe cares!" sings one of their heroes. If life is short, 
they thought man has all the more cause to work 
bravely. ''Each man of us shall abide the end of his 
life work; let him that may work, work his doomed 
deeds ere death come!" 

The Conquest of Britain.— The Angles and Saxons 
loved the sea almost as much as they loved war. In 
their long ships, each driven by fifty oars, they roved 
far and wide, plundering as they went. A Roman 
who lived at the time says: "they are fierce beyond 
other foes and cunning as they are fierce; the sea is 
their school of war and the storm their friend; they 
are sea-wolves that prey on the pillage of the world!" 
The EngHsh first came to the shores of Britain as bands 
of pirates. Soon they saw that it was a good land and 



130 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

began to make their homes in it. In some respects the 
coming of the early EngHsh to Britain was very much 
like the settlement of their descendants a thousand years 
later upon the coast of America. In both cases the new- 
comers slew the natives, or drove them before them as 
they slowly pushed into the interior of the country. 

The conquest of Britain by the Angles and Saxons 
took a long time and was attended by great cruelty and 
suffering. The pagan Saxons tell us that the natives 
fled before them ^'as from fire." A British monk 
tells the same story. Some of his people, he says, 
^^were caught in the hills and slaughtered; others, 
worn out with hunger, gave themselves up to life-long 
slavery. Some fled across the sea; others trusted 
themselves to the clefts of the mountains, to the forests, 
and to the rocks along the coast." 

Not all the Britons perished in this conquest of the 
island. Those who became the slaves of the invaders 
remained in the country, and in the course of time w^ere 
united with their conquerors and thus helped to make 
the English people. Those who were driven into the 
mountains of the west and the north became the 
ancestors of the Welsh and the Highland Scotch. 
The Irish people are closely akin to these descend- 
ants of the ancient Britons. 

The Angles and Saxons did not come to Britain as 
one nation. Each tribe had its own leader, and several 
little kingdoms grew up in the country. For a long 
time these petty kingdoms fought among themselves. 
Wessex in the south proved to be the strongest of the 
English states, and after many years Egbert, its king, 
became the first king of all England. 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 



131 



The Conversion of the English. — The Christian 
religion was first introduced into Britain while it was 
a Roman province. When the Angles and Saxons 
came to the island they were still pagans. Like the 
other early Germans, they worshipped the powers of 
nature. As they killed or drove away its Christian 
inhabitants Britain became once more a heathen 
country, which had to be won 
a second time to the Christian 
faith. 

The early English, hke the 
Romans, sold their prisoners 
of war into slavery. So many 
captives were taken in the 
struggles between the petty 
kingdoms in England that the 
slave markets of Europe were 
filled with English slaves. One 
day Gregory, a Roman monk, 

was attracted by the fair faces and golden hair of 
some of the children who were offered for sale in 
the market at Rome. '^From what country do these 
slaves come? " he asked. ^^They are Angles," answered 
the slave dealer who brought them. ^'Not Angles, 
but angels," said Gregory, ^^for they have angelic 
faces." 

In his zeal, Gregory determined to carry the Chris- 
tian religion to the distant home of the bright-faced 
English slaves. Before he was able to accomplish 
this purpose he was made pope. He did not forget 
his plan, however, and when he could he organized a 
missionary party to go to England. Augustine was 




GREGORY AND THE 
ENGLISH SLAVES 



132 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



made the leader of this first Christian mission to the 
Enghsh people. 

Augustine, with about forty other monks, landed 
upon the shores of Kent, a little kingdom in the south- 
east of England. Bertha, the queen of Kent, was a 
Christian princess from France. Possibly because of 
her influence the king received Augustine kindly and 



^'^-^^ 




;'/:v';tIx^iKwi;iiij'.gif:;!;'4^^^ 






ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY 
This quaint little church, sometimes called the "Mother Church of England," 
is said to be the place where the king of Kent was baptized. 

permitted him to hve in Canterbury, the capital of 
the kingdom. After a httle time the king and many 
of his people accepted the Christian faith and were 
baptized. Canterbury has remained the capital of the 
English church until this day. 

Greatly encouraged by their first success, the mis- 
sionaries pressed on to win the whole island for the 
church. On one occasion, when they called upon a 
king in the north of England to accept the teachings 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 



133 



of Christ he gathered his wise men about him and asked 
their advice. One aged chief arose and said, ^'0 king, 
as a bird flies through this hall on a dark and rainy 
night, coming in out of the darkness and after a minute 
in the hght vanishing into the dark storm from which it 
came, even such is our Hfe. If these strangers can tell 
us anyi;hing of what is beyond, let us give heed to 
them." This seemed wise to the king. He became a 
Christian and Christi- 
anity soon spread 
among his people. 

Before the pagan 
Angles and Saxons con- 
quered Britain, Patrick, 
a native of Scotland, 
was fired with Chris- 
tian zeal for the con- 
version of the Irish 
people. After years of 

careful preparation he became the great missionary to 
Ireland, whose patron saint he has remained to the 
present time. By and by Christian Ireland sent mis- 
sionaries to the west coast of Scotland, where a famous 
monastery was built at lona. From lona many mis- 
sionaries went to the Highlands of Scotland and to 
the north of England. 

In the north of England the Irish and Scottish mis- 
sionaries from lona met the Roman missionaries from 
the south who were carrying on the work begun by 
Augustine. Some differences between them were 
settled in favor of the Roman church. This meant 
that all the churches in England would be organized 




ONE OF THE OLDEST CHURCHES 
IN ENGLAND 

It was built about 700. 



134 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

in one system under the authority of the pope at 
Rome. 

The Christian rehgion played a large part in the 
work of civilizing the barbarous Angles and Saxons. 
The church gave the people Sunday as a day of rest. 
The weak and the suffering could always look to the 
church for help. The monasteries which the mis- 
sionaries established became centers of Christian 
teaching and influence. The monks taught the people 
to work and to pray. They established the first 
schools and wrote the earliest English literature. 

The Coming of the Danes. — Three or four hundred 
years after the Angles and Saxons settled in England 
the Danes or Northmen, a new race of sea-rovers, 
came swarming upon its coasts. Norway, Sweden, 
and Denmark were the home lands of the Northmen. 
Sometimes they are called Vikings. In language, in 
their pagan religion, and in their ways of hving they 
were very much like the early English who first settled 
in Britain. Though the Danes came at first to plunder, 
they were on the lookout for new homes, and soon 
began to stay in England. 

For many years England suffered fearfully from the 
ravages of these bold and hardy sea-robbers. In their 
long, swift boats they would suddenly fall upon the 
coast or sweep up the rivers far into the interior of the 
land. Everywhere they went they slew the people, 
carried off their property, and left behind them a 
trail of burning houses and wasted fields. Because 
of their wealth the monasteries were the special 
object of these attacks. It is no wonder that the 
frightened monks added this petition to their usual 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 135 

prayers: 'Trom the fury of the Northmen, good 
Lord deliver us!" 

Before many years the Danes began to bring their 
families and make permanent settlements, just as the 
English had done long before. They quickly spread 
over the northeastern part of the island. It began to 



1 




Frmn a model in the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia, Pa. 
A VIKING SHIP 



look as though all England would become a Danish 
land. Only the inspiring leadership and heroic fight- 
ing of Alfred the Great saved the country from this 
fate. 

Alfred the Great and his Work. — Alfred was only 
twenty-three years old when he became king. Already 
he was a tried soldier, but the odds against him were 
great. He tells us in his own words that ''he did not 



136 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

think he could alone withstand the multitude and 
ferocity of the pagans." At first he could do little 
to check the invasion. But he was patient, and after 
careful preparation he defeated Gu thrum, the Danish 
leader, in a desperate battle which lasted from sunrise 
to sunset. Alfred was wise enough to see that he 
could not drive the Danes out of England alto- 
gether, so he made a treaty with them which pro- 
vided that they should live in the northeastern half of 
the country. 

The Danes now accepted Christianity, and in the 
end they became a part of the English people. In 
his ''Child's History of England," a charming though 
not always accurate book, Charles Dickens gives us 
this delightful picture of the mingling of the Danes 
and the English. The Danes ''plundered and burned 
no more, but worked like honest men. They plowed, 
and sowed, and reaped, and led honest English lives. 
And I hope the children of those Danes played many a 
time with Saxon children in the sunny fields; and that 
Danish young men fell in love with Saxon girls, and 
married them; and that English travelers, benighted 
at the doors of Danish cottages, often "went in for 
shelter until morning; and that Danes and Saxons 
sat by the red fire, friends, talking of King Alfred 
the Great." 

Alfred was a wise ruler as well as a gallant soldier. 
He began by looking after the defenses of his kingdom. 
He repaired the walls of the cities and built fortified 
camps. He organized the army in such a way that 
while one-half of the men were at home, cultivating 
their farms, the other half were in the field with him. 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 



137 



To guard the coasts and beat off the sea-robbers he 
built ships larger and swifter than those of the North- 
men. Thus, you see, Alfred was the father of the 
English navy. 

The long war with the Danes had left England with- 
out law and order. Trade and 
commerce had well-nigh ceased to 
exist. The monasteries and 
churches were in ruins and the 
surviving clergy in ignorance, for 
the schools were nearly all de- 
stroyed. Alfred gathered the laws 
into a written code that men might 
know what they were. He encour- 
aged manufacturing and trade and 
rebuilt the churches and monas- 
teries. He established schools so 
that his children and those of his 
nobles might learn to read and 
write. He gathered men of learn- 
ing about him and encouraged 
them to translate good books from 
Latin into English and to write 
others of their own. Alfred's 
work for education and literature 
is especially famous. 

Alfred was the noblest of all the 
English kings. At the close of his life, he could say 
truthfully, "So long as I have lived, I have striven 
to live worthily.'' His name is a household word in 
England to this day. In 1901, one thousand years 
after his death, the Enghsh built a monument to 




^i^afcia 



ALFRED THE 
GREAT 

This picture is from a 
statue of Alfred which 
stands in Winchester, the 
capital of England in his 
time. 



138 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



his memory at his birthplace, 
these words: 



Upon it are inscribed 



"Alfred found learning dead, 

And he restored it; 
Education neglected, 

And he revived it; 
The laws powerless. 

And he gave them force; 
The land ravaged by a fearful enemy, 

From which he dehvered it." 

Life in Early England. — In the England of a thou- 
sand years ago nearly all the people dwelt in little 




Harvesting Threshing 

FARM LIFE IN EARLY ENGLAND 

villages and made their living by cultivating the sur- 
rounding fields. Wheat, oats, and barley were the 
principal grains and cabbage was their chief vegetable. 
The plowing was done with a crude wooden plow 
drawn by oxen. The grain was cut with a sickle and 
threshed with a flail. There were many cattle and 
sheep in the pastures, and great droves of swine 
fattened on the acorns and beechnuts in the neighbor- 
ing forests. Every farmer kept poultry and a hive of 
bees, for honey was used then as we use sugar. 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 139 

The cottages in the early EngHsh villages were 
little better than huts. They had only one story, and 
commonly only one room. They were built of poles 




THE HALL IN AN EARLY ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE 

woven together and plastered with mud. The floor 
was of earth and the roof was thatched with straw. 
A few benches, arough table, and a bed of straw in the 
corner made up the furniture. 



140 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



Near the village there was a larger and better house 
in which the chief man of the community lived. This 
house usually contained a large hall or living room, 
along the sides of which were sleeping rooms for the 
members of the family. Glass w^as rarely used in the 
windows, the wooden shutters of which kept out the 
wind and rain. Even in the best of houses there was 
little furniture except tables and benches. A fire in 
the middle of the hall gave w^armth and some light. 

The smoke escaped 
through a hole in the 
roof. If the owner 
could afford them, 
bright-colored tapes- 
tries, armor, and 
weapons hung upon 
the walls of the hall. 
The early English 
village produced 
nearly everything that its people used. Their food 
came from the fields and pastures, and their firewood 
from the nearby forest. The people seldom traveled 
far from home. Their life was a simple round of toil, 
broken now and then by some rough games and sports. 
Occasionally a pedler visited the village with a few 
goods that the people needed. The wandering min- 
strel who could play and sing or tell stories was 
always eagerly welcomed. Sometimes the minstrel was 
a juggler as well, and would amuse the people by 
throwing knives into the air and catching them as 
they fell, or by dancing upon his hands with his legs 
in the air. 




EARLY ENGLISH JUGCxLERS 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 141 

Very slowly cities grew up in places which were 
favorably situated for trade because they were on 
rivers, or harbors, or important roads. In such 
places some men made their living by buying and 
selling; others were blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers, 
or shoemakers. It was at this time that London came 
to be again, as it had been in Roman times, an impor- 
tant center of trade. Chester, York, and Lincoln 
were other famous early English cities. 

The king was at the head of the government in early 
England. He was assisted by a council of the wise 
men of the land. In the course of time this royal 
council grew to be the Parliament which England has 
today. The kingdom was divided into shires or coun- 
ties, in each of which the king was represented by an 
officer called the sheriff. We get the idea of our coun- 
ties with their sheriffs from England. The township 
was the smallest division of the country. Our town- 
ships, in which we elect our local officers and manage 
our local affairs, come to us from England. 

The early English had a few ballads about their 
wars, and in the monasteries a few books were written 
by the monks. Most of the people cared little for 
education or learning. Still they possessed certain 
great virtues which every people who win real success 
in the world must have. Though they were rough 
and ignorant, our early English ancestors were strong 
and fearless, and they loved truth, justice, and 
freedom. 

The Coming of the Normans. — About the time that 
King Alfred was fighting the Danes in England a 
party of these same Northmen under Rollo. their 



142 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



chieftain, succeeded in getting possession of a strip of 
country across the English Channel upon the northern 
coast of France. The land in which they settled is 
called Normandy to this day. These rude sea rovers 
were quick to learn the ways of the more civilized people 
among whom they lived. They soon accepted Chris- 
tianity and in less than a century they had adopted 
the laws and the language of France. In a word, the 




WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR LANDING IN ENGLAND 

Normans had become Frenchmen without losing the 
vigor and the love of hard fighting of their Northmen 
ancestors. 

A little more than a century after the Northmen 
settled in Normandy, WilHam, a boy only ten years 
old, became their duke or ruler. William was a sturdy 
boy, full of fire and energy. He had many enemies 
but he overcame them all and grew to be a man of 
great strength and courage.. No man in his army, it 
was said, could bend the duke's bow. As wise as he was 
strong, William was a brave soldier and a great ruler. 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 143 

When the Enghsh king, Edward, died in 1066, Duke 
WiUiam of Normandy wanted to be king of England. 
He claimed that Edward had promised to make him 
his heir. But the council of the wise men in England 
gave the crown to Harold, a great English earl. 
William was very angry and invaded England with a 
large Norman army. 

Harold gathered his fighting men and met the 
Normans in a great battle at Hastings, in the south of 
England. The English fought with stubborn courage 
and all day long the mail-clad Norman horsemen 
charged in vain against Harold's line of foot soldiers. 
Toward sunset an arrow pierced the eye of the English 
king and he fell to rise no more. Soon the English 
line was broken and the battle closed in an awful scene 
of slaughter. Most of the English leaders were slain 
as they fought over the body of their king. As night 
fell the surviving English fled in confusion. The 
Duke of Normandy had become William the Conqueror 
of England. 

William now marched to London, where he was 
crowned king. There was still much fighting to be 
done, but in a few years the Conqueror was the 
master of all England. The land was given to his 
Norman followers, who thus became the overlords of 
the English farmers and villagers. Many Normans 
now came to live in England. In time they mingled 
with the English inhabitants and so helped to make 
the English people of today. 

The Norman Conquest had a very great influence 
upon England. It increased the power of the king 
and gave the land a new Norman nobility. It brought 



144 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



the country into closer contact with the continent 
through trade and traveL Everywhere the Normans 
built great stone castles in place of the wooden halls 

of the English. 
The conquest did 
much to give us 
the English lan- 
guage that we use, 
by adding to the 
early English 
speech a large 
number of French 
words. As w^e 
have seen, the 
French language 
was made from the 
Latin. Conse- 
quently many of 
the Latin words in our language came into it as a 
result of the Norman Conquest of England. 




AN ENGLISH CASTLE BUILT BY THE 
NORMANS 



QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. In what ways does the geography of any country influence the 
Hves of the people who live in it? 

2. How do the Irish differ from the English people? 

3. In what ways did the Angles and Saxons change after they 
became Christians? 

4. Name all the peoples who have united to form the English race. 

5. Why is King Alfred justly caUed the Great? 

6. How was grain threshed with a flail? How is it threshed now? 

7. From what languages is the English speech derived? 



BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Histories of England by Cheyney, Thomas, Larson, Terry, Wrong, 
Andrews, Gardiner, and Green. 



THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 145 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Tappan: England's Story; In the Days of Alfred the Great; In the 

Days of William the Conqueror. 
Blaisdell : Stories from English History. 
Dickens: A Child's History of England. 
Guerber: The Story of the English. 
Warren : Stories from English History. 
Church : Stories from English History. 
Kiphng: Puck of Pook's Hill. 



10 



CHAPTER IX 
LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

How the Common People Lived. — The time from 
the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century to 
the discovery of America in 1492 is often called the 
Middle Ages. It was during this period of a thousand 
years that the various German tribes — the Saxons, 
Franks, and many others — were mingling with each 
other and with the peoples of the Roman provinces in 
which they had settled. From this union of peoples 
the races, languages, and life of modern Europe were 
developing. Many of our ideas and institutions grew 
up in Europe in the Middle Ages. 

The people who lived in the Middle Ages used to say 
that all men were divided into three classes: the com- 
mon people, who did the work; the nobles, who did 
the fighting; and the clergy, who did the praying. 
A vast majority of the people belonged to the first of 
these classes. The common people did all the work, 
but they were looked down upon and even despised 
by the nobles. 

During the hundreds of years while the barbarian 
tribes that overran the Roman provinces in western 
Europe were slowly learning civilized ways of living, it 
was natural that there should be much disorder and 
many wars. Yet all through this time of conf vision 
f he mass of men were hard at work cultivating the soil 

(146) 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 147 

and caring for the domestic animals in order that they 
as well as all other men might have a supply of food. 
Very few of the men who did the plowing and the 
reaping in the Middle Ages were free. Some of them 
were slaves, but by far the greater number were serfs, 
that is, they belonged to the land, and while their 
masters could not sell them, they could not move away 
from the land which they farmed. Nearly all the land 
belonged to the nobles or to the church. During a 
certain number of days in each week the serfs were 



From an old drawing 
SERFS AT WORK 

compelled to work upon the land of their masters or 
lords. On the other days they were permitted to culti- 
vate patches of land for themselves, but even then they 
were required to give part of what they raised to their 
lord. For example, there is a record of an English 
serf named Hugh Miller, who was required to work 
for his lord three days in each week, and in addition 
to give him one bushel of wheat and eighteen sheaves 
of oats, three hens and one cock yearly, and five eggs 
at Easter. These dues varied greatly in different 
places. 

The lot of the common people was a hard one 
during the Middle Ages. They Hved in miserable 
hovels, their food and clothing were of the coarsest 



148 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

kind, and they had httle that they could call their own. 
They toiled hard, had very few pleasures, and were 
surrounded by many dangers. Sometimes, made 
desperate by their miserable condition, the serfs rebelled 
against their lords, but as a rule these uprisings were 
put down with great cruelty. 

Yet little by little, as the Middle Ages drew to an end, 
the serfs succeeded in getting their freedom. In most 
of the countries of western Europe they were free men 
before the discovery of America. In Germany and 
Russia serfdom lasted until the nineteenth century. 

We can form a very good idea of the simple way in 
which a well-to-do family of the common people lived 
near the close of the Middle Ages from this list of 
things which we know belonged to such a family: 

''2 feather beds, 15 linen sheets, and 4 striped yellow counterpanes. 

'*1 hand-mill for grinding meal, a pestle and mortar for pounding 
grain, 2 grain chests, a kneading trough, and 2 ovens over which coals 
could be heaped for baking. 

"2 iron tripods on which to hang kettles over the fires; 2 metal pots 
and 1 large kettle. 

''1 metal bowl, 2 brass water jugs, 4 bottles, a copper box, a tin 
washtub, a metal warming pan, 2 large chests, a box, a cupboard, 4 
tables on trestles, a large table, and bench. 

"2 axes, 4 lances, a crossbow, a scythe, and some other tools." 

In the earlier Middle Ages nearly all the common 
people lived in country villages. A few of the old 
Roman cities still existed. As time passed, towns 
began to grow up in places favorably situated for trade. 
It was necessary in those lawless days to build a wall 
about the town for defense. As a consequence, its 
buildings were often crowded closely together inside^ 
the wall and its streets were narrow and crooked. 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



149 



As commerce and manufacturing grew in the later 
Middle Ages many of the towns came to be rich and 
busy cities. Both the merchants and the workmen 
in each industry were banded together in gilds, or 
unions as we should call them. Many of these gilds 
built splendid halls in which to hold their meetings. 

At first the towns were obliged 
to pay dues to the nobles very 
much as the people of the country 
villages were. But as the cities 
grew rich and strong they either 
bought their freedom or won it 
with the sword. The citizens of 
the free towns now learned how 
to govern themselves. In this 
way they were fitting themselves 
to take part in the government of 
the nation. 

Life in the Castles. — The nobles 
who did the fighting in the Middle 
Ages were far less numerous than 
the common people who did the 
work. Still there were many of them and their strong 
castles could be found everywhere in western Europe. 
The nobles owned the greater part of the land upon 
which the farmers worked. But they owned it in a 
peculiar way, which we must try to understand. 

It was believed in the Middle Ages that all the land 
in a kingdom had once belonged to the king, as Eng- 
land belonged to WilUam the Conqueror after he had 
conquered it. The king gave large tracts of land in 
his kingdom to his great nobles. When the king gave 




•A STREET IN A 

MEDIAEVAL 

TOWN 

Notice how narrow and 
crooked it is. The gutter 
is in the center and there 
are no sidewalks. 



150 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



land to a duke or an earl he also gave him the right to 
govern the people who Hved upon it. The great noble 




THE WARTBURG 
This is a good example of a mediseval castle. Notice the great walls and the court- 
yards within, with the buildings about them. 

in turn gave a part of his land to lesser nobles and with 
it he gave them certain rights to rule the people upon 
it. Often this process was repeated several times. 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



151 



The noble who gave the land was called the overlord; 
the one who received it was a vassal. In every case 
the overlord promised to protect his vassal in time of 
danger, and the vassal in return promised to fight for 
his overlord and to pay him money on certain occasions. 
This way of owning land, with the government and 
society which grew out of it, is called the feudal system. 




KNIGHTS RETURNING TO A CASTLE AFTER A RAID INTO AN 
ENEMY'S COUNTRY 



The Middle Ages were lawless and warlike and the 
nobles, great and small, lived in castles in order to 
defend themselves better against their enemies. The 
castle was usually built upon a cliff, or upon an island, 
or in some other place not easily approached. The 
stronghold itself, which was the dwelling place of the 
noble and his family, stood in an enclosure in which 
there was also a well or spring, stables for the horses, 
other necessary buildings, and sometimes a garden. 
This enclosure was surrounded by a great wall and 
often there was a moat, or ditch filled with water, 



152 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



outside the wall. To enter the castle one crossed the 
drawbridge, a movable bridge over the moat, and then 
passed through a great barred gate or door between 
two strong towers. 

The owner of the castle spent his time in ruling his 
subjects and in managing his estate^ in hunting, and in 
fighting. The deer, the wild boars, and the other 

game killed in the 
chase furnished a con- 
siderable share of the 
food of the residents 
of the castle. Vassals 
were often called upon 
to fight for their over- 
lords or for the king, 
and private wars be- 
tween nobles were 
going on nearly all 
the time. 

Knighthood or Chiv- 
alry. — It will help us to understand what life in a 
castle was like if we see how the boys of the nobility 
were educated to take their part in it when they became 
men. Until a boy was seven or eight years old he lived 
at home with his mother. Here he had his first lessons 
in rehgion as well as in obedience and good manners. 
From his earliest childhood he ran, climbed, jumped, 
rode, and swam, and this constant exercise made 
him grow strong and vigorous. 

When the boy was seven or eight years old he was 
sent to the castle of some neighboring noble, often his 
father's overlord, to be educated. For several years 




PAGES SERVING THEIR LORD 
AND HIS LADY AT TABLE 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 153 

he was called a page. It was the duty of the pages to 
run errands, to serve at the table, and to clean the 
weapons and the armor of the men. The pages lived 
much with the ladies of the castle, who taught them 
lessons of honor and courtesy. Sometimes the page 
was taught to read and write, to sing, to compose 
verses, and to play upon the harp. 
■ When the page had grown to be a strong boy of 
fourteen or fifteen he was called a squire. While the 
squire continued to do some of his former work about 
the castle it now became his special duty to wait upon 
his lord. He made the lord's bed, helped him to dress, 
waited upon him at table, looked after his armor, 
groomed his horses, and saw that they were well shod. 
All this time the squire was learning the art of war, to 
ride, and to handle shield, spear, and sword. In war 
he went with his lord to the field, and in case of need 
aided him in the fight. 

When the squire had grown to be a man and had 
proved his skill and courage he might become a 
knight. Sometimes he was made a knight upon the 
field of battle for some special act of valor. But 
usually, after a season of fasting and prayer, he spent a 
night in the church in meditation. In the morning he 
presented his sword to the priest, who blessed it upon 
the altar. The squire now took a solemn oath ^Ho 
defend the church, to attack the wicked, to respect the 
priesthood, to protect women and the poor, to preserve 
the country in tranquilhty, and to shed his blood, even to 
its last drop, in behalf of his brethren." When his sword 
was returned he knelt before his lord, who laid his own 
sword upon the shoulder of the kneeling man and said: 



154 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



v^:>\ A,--i-' rjMn. 







A LORP KNIGHTING A SQUIRE 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 155 

''In the name of God, of our Lady, of thy patron 
Saint, and of St. Michael and St. George, I dub thee 
Knight; be brave, bold and loyaL" 

No doubt many a knight fell far short of attaining 
the ideals of knighthood or chivalry. Yet even during 
the brutal wars of the Middle Ages knighthood helped 
to establish a standard of character that remains to 
the present time. The true knight was brave, loyal, 
and dignified. The rules of chivalry taught him to be 
gentle, courteous, and faithful to his plighted word. 
They also taught him to respect and venerate women 
of his own class, though too often the knight showed 
little respect for the rights of either men or women 
of the common people. Tennyson, one of the greatest 
of English poets, has given us this splendid picture of 
the perfect knight in describing the way in which 
King Arthur conferred the honor of knighthood. 

"I made them lay their hands in mine and swear 
To reverence the King as if he were 
Their conscience, and their conscience as their King, 
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, 
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs. 
To speak no slander, no, nor hsten to it. 
To lead sweet Hves in purest chastity. 
To love one maiden only, cleave to her. 
And worship her by years of noble deeds, 
Until they won her." 

The Church in the Middle Ages. — The church had 
so much influence over the lives of all the people in 
the Middle Ages that we must learn what it was and 
what it did if we would really understand how they 
lived. In those days the church was very different 
from any of the various churches that we see around 



156 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

us at present. Now there are many religious denomi- 
nations and each person may freely choose which 
church he will join, or whether he will belong to any 
of them or not. In the Middle Ages there was only 
one church and every one was required to belong to 
it. To refuse to obey the church or to deny the truth 
of what it taught was regarded as treason against God, 
and was often punished with death. 

In our time all churches in America must rely for 
their support upon the voluntary contributions of 
their members. This was not the case in Europe in 
the Middle Ages. Then the church owned vast 
tracts of land from which it drew a great income. 
Some of the serfs worked upon the lands of the 
church just as others toiled upon the estates of the 
nobles. The church also laid a regular tax which 
people were forced to pay just as they must now pay 
taxes to support the government. 

In a former chapter we studied the beginning and 
the early growth of the church. In the Middle Ages 
all authority over the church belonged to the pope. 
He could make its laws and was the final judge in 
cases arising under them. Next to the pope in 
importance came the archbishops. An archbishop had 
some authority over the bishops in his province, as 
the country under his rule was called. Then there 
was a bishop in nearly every important city. He had 
supervision over all the parishes in his district or 
diocese. 

Each community was a parish with its priest and its 
parish church. The priest was the religious leader of 
the people. He conducted the services in the church, 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



157 



and baptized, married, and buried the people of his 
parish. The social life of each community centered 
about its church. To the hard-working common 
people Sunday was a holiday on which they all gathered 
at the church, near which they frequently played 
games between the serv- 
ices. Sometimes, in addi- 
tion to the religious serv- 
ices, the priest would read 
letters from the absent or 
tell the people any news 
that he had heard during 
the week. 

The Monks and their 
Work. — Besides the priests 
who had charge of the par- 
ishes there were great num- 
bers of monks living in the 
monasteries which were 
found everywhere in west- 
ern Europe. We have seen 
how life in the monasteries 
began. During the Middle 
Ages the number of these 
institutions grew to be very 

large. It was natural that in such a warlike age the 
people who disliked fighting and loved quiet and study 
should seek the safe and peaceful life of the monasteries. 
In them too, the weak, the disappointed, and the 
unhappy often sought refuge. The monasteries did 
much to keep civilization alive during the Middle 
Ages. 




A BISHOP ON HIS THRONE 



158 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



The monks did much to help the German bar- 
barians to learn civilized ways of living. They were 
the earliest missionaries of the Christian faith to the 
pagans. Wherever they settled and monasteries grew 







A GREAT MONASTERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
Within the enclosure is a splendid church, a dining room and sleeping rooms for 
the monks, a gue§t house, and various workshops and oflBces. 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



15d 



up they became teachers of industry as well as of 
religion. They cleared the land, drained the bogs, 
built roads and bridges, and by their example taught 
the people the best ways of farming known in their 
time. In many of the monasteries there were monks 
who worked at the various trades, and so kept the 
knowledge of the manual arts and crafts which the 
Romans possessed from being lost in the Middle Ages. 




I From painting by John W, Alexander in (be lAbrary of Congress 
THE WRITING ROOM OF A MONASTERY 



In the same way many of the books and some of 
the art of Greece and Rome were preserved during the 
centuries of confusion and turmoil which followed the 
fall of the Roman Empire. Every monastery had a 
writing room in which the monks copied and illustrated 
such books as they possessed. For a long time nearly 
all the schools in western Europe were in the monas- 
teries. At their doors the poor, the sick, and the 
hungry never asked help in vain. The weary traveler 
always found hospitable entertainment under their 



160 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

roofs. In a word, the monks taught the world many a 
needed lesson in labor, learning, self-denial, and charity. 

At first men entered the monasteries in order to 
escape from the temptations in the world, to live 
quiet and peaceful lives, and to save their own souls. 
But in the later Middle Ages new orders of monks 
arose whose members, called friars, which means 
brothers, went about in the world preaching to the 
people and helping the poor and the sick. 

St. Francis of Assisi, in Italy, the first of the friars, 
was one of the gentlest and noblest characters in the 
Middle Ages. He had a good home, but he gave away 
all his property and devoted his whole life to caring 
for the sick, repairing the churches, and preaching 
the goodness of God. Francis loved all things. He 
even called the birds his brothers and sisters, and some- 
times he preached to them. Longfellow tells us what 
he said: 

^"O brother birds," St. Francis said, 
"Ye come to me and ask for bread, 
But not with bread alone today 
Shall ye be fed and sent away. 

"Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise 
The Great Creator in your lays; 
He giveth you your plumes of down 
Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown. 

"He giveth you your wings to fly 
And breathe a purer air on high, 
And careth for you everywhere. 
Who for yourselves so Httle care." 

The church was the greatest civilizing influence in 
the Middle Ages. It taught the people the Christian 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



161 




THE CATHEDRAL AT rjIEOIS IX FRAXCE 
_ This was one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. It 
during the great war which began in 1914. 



was ruined 



162 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

faith and led them in the Christian hfe. It kept 
ahve and handed on to us the most of our knowledge 
of the education, the literature, and the art of the 
Greeks and the Romans. It founded many of the 
great colleges and universities which we find in Europe 
today. 

In nearly every city in Europe in which there lived 
a bishop of the church in the Middle Ages there stands 
today a beautiful church called a cathedral. These 
vast cathedrals, with their splendid windows filled with 
beautiful stained glass and their wealth of statues and 
paintings, tell of the love and devotion which the 
people who built them gave to the church. The 
cathedrals of the Middle Ages are among the noblest 
Works of art in all the world. 

The Crusades. — In the Middle Ages it was a pious 
act to visit some sacred spot. It was believed that a 
place was made holy by its association with some 
important event in the history of the Christian reli- 
gion. The land of Palestine in which Jesus lived and 
taught, and the city of Jerusalem where he was cruci- 
fied, were the holiest places in the world; and a journey 
to them was thought to be a peculiarly pious under- 
taking. 

The love of adventure and a desire to see the world 
joined with religious zeal and enthusiasm to send 
great numbers of people on pilgrimages to the Holy 
Land. Many of these pilgrims tramped across Europe 
to Constantinople and thence through Asia Minor to 
Palestine. Others sought some port on the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, from which they took ships to their desti- 
nation. For a long time the Mohammedan Saracens, 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



163 



who ruled Palestine, treated the Christian pilgrims 
kindly. But in the eleventh century the Holy Land 
fell into the hands of the barbarous Turks. Soon 
dreadful stories of the outrages suffered by the pil- 
grims at the hands of the Turks began to be told in 
western Europe. 

The Turks even threatened Constantinople and the 
eastern emperor called upon the pope for help. 
At a great council in France Pope Urban, with fiery 







CRUSADERS ON THE MARCH 



eloquence, appealed to the nobles and knights to enhst 
in a war for the deliverance of the Holy Land. " Christ 
Himself," he said, ''will be your leader when you 
fight for Jerusalem. Let not love of any earthly 
possession detain you. You dwell in a land narrow 
and infertile. Your numbers overflow and hence you 
devour one another in wars. Let these home discords 
cease. Start upon the way to the Holy Sepulcher; 
wrest the land from the accursed race, and subdue it 
to yourselves!" 



164 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



This burning appeal met with an instant response. 
Crying, ^'It is the will of God!" the knights fastened 
crosses of red cloth upon their breasts as signs that 
they were pledged to fight for the deliverance of the 
Holy Land from the hands of the infidels. In this way. 
began the first of several great military expeditions 
r^ carried on at intervals for 

nearly two hundred years, 
for the purpose of rescuing 
the holy places of Palestine 
from the Mohammedans. 
These expeditions are called 
the Crusades. 

The soldiers of the first 
crusade made their way by 
various routes to Constan- 
tinople, where they united 
to form a great army. 
When this army entered 
Asia Minor the real fighting 
began. The Turks were 
defeated in battle after 
battle, the famous city of Antioch was taken after 
a long siege, and at last the crusaders stormed Jeru- 
salem, killed or drove away the Mohammedans, and 
estabhshed a Christian kingdom in the Holy Land. 

From time to time this Christian kingdom of 
Jerusalem, founded by the leaders of the first crusade, 
was sorely beset by the neighboring Turks and Saracens. 
At these times great armies of new crusaders from 
western Europe poured into Asia to fight the infidels 
as the Mohammedans were called. There were eight 




CRUSADERS STORMING A 
CITY 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 165 

of these crusades in alL The later ones were caused 
quite as much by the love of adventure and the hope 
of winning wealth and lands in the East as by zeal for 
the defense of the Holy Land. As the thirteenth 
century drew to an end the crusades ceased. 

The Influence of the Crusades. — The contact of 
the West with the East during two centuries of crusad- 
ing had a very great influence upon the life of the 




THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE 

people in western Europe. The crusaders saw many 
strange sights and learned many new things. They 
were astonished to find that the Greeks at Constan- 
tinople and the Saracens or Arabs in Asia far surpassed 
the people of the West in civilization. 

At Constantinople the crusaders, who knew only 
the rural villages or castles of the West, saw a splendid 
city with flourishing manufactures and a widespread 
commerce. From the Arabs they learned to cultivate 
such plants as rice, sugar cane, hemp, and asparagus; 



166 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



such fruits as the orange, the lemon, and the apricot. 
In the making of weapons, rugs, vases, and lamps of 
copper and silver, and fine glassware and pottery the 
Arabs easily surpassed the rest of the world. Sugar, 
perfumes, and paper were brought to Europe from 
Mohammedan countries. The European peoples are 
also indebted to the Arabs for our present system of 

notation in arith- 
metic, for algebra, 
and for many 
lessons in chemis- 
try and in medi- 
cine. 

To see these 
things in the East 
was to desire 
them. Conse- 
quently, the cru- 
sades caused trade 
to spring up be- 
tween >the East 
and the West. The 
seaport towns of Italy soon became rich through the new 
commerce. Regular routes of inland trade led to the 
northern European cities, which from this time grew 
rapidly. Soon the people of the West began to manu- 
facture many things that they had never made before. 
Many social and political changes in Europe can be 
traced to the crusades. Some of the nobles who 
became crusaders never returned. This helped to 
break down the feudal system. As the cities grew 
richer they bought the right to govern themselves 




Model in Commercial Musezim, Pliila. 
A SHIP OF THE TOIE OF THE CRUSADES 
It was about 62 feet long and depended entirely 
on sails instead of oars. 



IJFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 167 

from their overlords. Most important of all, the men 
who went on the crusades gained new knowledge and 
new ideas. They had '^ walked in new ways, and seen 
new things, and listened to new thoughts." Never 
again could the people of western Europe be as narrow 
and ignorant as they had been in the early Middle 
Ages. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Why do you suppose the nobles "looked down upon and even 
despised" the people who worked? Does any one feel that way toward 
people who work now? 

2. Write a short account of the way in which a family of the com- 
mon people lived in the Middle Ages. 

3. Is there any place in your vicinity which would have been a good 
site for a castle in the Middle Ages? Why? 

4. How did the education of a page differ from the education of a 
boy now? 

5. Compare our ideas about Sabbath-keeping with those of the 
people in the Middle Ages. 

6. What did the crusaders learn in the East? 

7. What do we ever learn by travel? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Seignobos: History of Mediaeval and Modern Civilization. 
Munro: A Histonj of the Middle Ages, Chapters XIII, XIV. 
Robinson: History of Western Europe, Chapters IX-XIX. 
Harding: Mediceval and Modern History, Chapters VIII, IX. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Tappan : When Knights were Bold. 

Harding: The Story of the Middle Ages. 

Retold from ''St. Nicholas": Stories of the Middle Ages. 

Lanier: Boy^s King Arthur. 

Haaren and Poland: Famous Men of the Middle Ages. 

Mabie: Heroes Every Child Should Know. 



CHAPTER X 
THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 

English Farming in the Middle Ages. — It is a little 
more than five hundred years from the conquest of 
England by William of Normandy to the time of the 
beginning of the first English colony in America. 
During all these centuries the ways of making a 
living, the form of government, the love of freedom, 
the language, and the literature which the earliest 
English settlers brought to America were slowly but 
steadily developing in the mother country. The 
story of their growth is a part of our history. 

All through this long period of time the great mass 
of Englishmen still lived in small villages in the country, 
as they had lived ever since the Saxon times before 
the Norman Conquest. Each rural community was 
called a manor. The land in each manor belonged 
to its chief man or lord. A few of the farmers were 
free men, who paid the lord rent for the land which 
they tilled. Most of them, however, were serfs who 
worked a part of each week for the lord of the manor, 
upon the land which he kept for his own use, and 
spent the remainder of the time in cultivating the 
land which their masters let them have for them- 
selves. The serfs were not free to move to another 
part of the country but must spend their fives upon 
the land of their lord. Some of the vifiagers who 

(168) 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 169 




had very little land 

of their own worked 

for their neighbors. 
The plan of a 

typical manor 

printed upon this 

page will help you 

to understand what 

a country commu- 
nity was like in 

England in the 

Middle Ages. The 

demesne, or domain 

as it is sometimes 

called, was the land 

which the lord of 

the manor kept for 

himself and which was cultivated by the labor of his 

serfs. The manor house or residence of the lord with 

its orchards and gardens stood within the demesne. 

The cultivated land of the 
manor outside the demesne 
was usually divided into 
three fields. Every year 
wheat or rye was sown in 
one of these fields, oats, 
barley, or peas in another, 
and the third field was left 
unsown because it was 

found that constant cropping wore out the land too 

rapidly. Crops were planted in a regular rotation so 

that each field had one year of rest in every three. 



PLAN OF A MANOR IN THE MIDDLE AGES 




irau 



i^*sw: 



AN OLD ENGLISH MANOR 
HOUSE 



170 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Each of the great fields was cut up into long narrow 
strips, marked off from one another by lines of 
unplowed land called balks. Each farmer had a 
strip of land here and a strip there, scattered about 
through all the fields. Sometimes he also had a small 
enclosed field near his house in the village. Each 
man usually possessed in this way somewhere from 
ten to thirty acres of land. The farmers often helped 
each other by working together, for few of them could 
afford to own all the oxen, plows, and carts required 
for the work on their land. 

In each country village there was a church and a 
parish priest. Often there was a blacksmith, who 
kept the tools of the farmer in order. Where there 
was a stream to provide water power there was apt 
to be a mill, and a miller who ground grain for the 
neighborhood. Occasionally a weaver or other crafts- 
man plied his trade in the village. But nearly all 
the people lived by cultivating the land. The people 
in each village produced nearly everything that they 
needed, seldom traveled far from home, and knew 
very little about the outside world. Such was the 
life of most Englishmen for hundreds of years in the 
Middle Ages. 

Important Changes in English Country Life. — As 
we approach the time when America was discovered 
we find some important changes taking place in 
English country life. These changes were hastened 
by a dreadful pestilence called the Black Death which 
swept over England in the fourteenth century. In 
many villages more than half the people died. This 
sudden loss of so many people made it difficult 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 171 



■r-ss* 




^ r^- jrrn -^ : 



"^ jrrr 



and often impossible to get enough men to work 
the land. The laborers demanded, and often secured, 
much higher wages than they had ever received 
before this time. Many of the serfs ran away from 
their masters because they could now improve their 
condition by working for wages. The lords now 
began to accept a 
rent in money for 
the land which the 
serfs worked for 
themselves in the 
place of the work 
which they had 
formerly given. 
In these ways serf- 
dom finally died 
out in England. 
By the time Amer- 
ica was discovered 
there had come to 
be three distinct 
classes of country 

people in England : the landlords who owned the land, 
the farmers who rented it of them, and the laborers 
who worked for wages for the farmers. 

How Goods Were Made and Sold in the Middle 
Ages. — In the later Middle Ages there were about 
two hundred walled towns in England. London, 
which was the largest, had about 25,000 inhab- 
itants; but most of the towns were much smaller. 
In these towns lived the merchants who bought 
and sold goods and the artisans or craftsmen who 







A FINE EXAMPLE OF A MEDIAEVAL 

TOWN HOUSE AT LINCOLN, 

ENGLAND 



172 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



made the articles for which there was a ready 
market. 

Manufacturing was carried on in those days very 
differently from the way in which it is at present. 
In all the world there was then nothing like our modern 
factories. Goods were made by hand in little shops 
in which at most only a few men worked. It will 
help us to understand the English life of those days 

if we see how a boy 
learned his trade. 

When a boy who 
was to learn a trade 
was twelve or four- 
teen years old he 
was apprenticed to 
some master work- 
man, a weaver, per- 
haps, or a tanner. 
This means that a 
contract or agreement was made between the parents 
of the boy and the master, in which the latter agreed 
to provide the boy with food, clothing, and lodging, 
and to teach him all that he himself knew about his 
craft or trade. The apprentice boy was bound to 
behave himself properly, to obey his master, and to 
work for him during the time of apprenticeship, which 
was usually seven years. 

During the years of his apprenticeship the boy 
lived in the house of his master and worked with him 
in his little shop. When these years had passed, the 
boy, now grown to manhood, was called a journey- 
man, and could work for wages for any master of 




A MASTER CARPENTER AND HIS 
APPRENTICE AT WORK 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 173 



his trade. If he were a thrifty workman and saved 
his money he might hope to become a master with 
a shop of his own. All the men of the same craft 
or trade were members of a gild, or union, which had 
its regular rules, its officers, and its meetings. The 




A FAIR IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

purpose of these gilds was to promote the welfare 
of their members. 

In addition to the trading done by the merchants 
in the shops and stores of the towns there was much 
bu^dng and selling at markets and fairs. Once or 
twice a week the people of the neighboring country 
brought the produce of their farms to the town market 
for sale, just as they still do in many places in England 
and America. The fairs were held every year, and 
sometimes every six months, in open fields near cer- 



174 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

tain towns. On these occasions long rows of wooden 
booths were built, in which goods were offered for 
sale. At these fairs the merchants from distant 
English towns, and even from foreign cities, gathered 
to buy the goods of the part of England where the 
fair was held, and to sell the articles which they had 
produced or imported. A fair usually lasted from 
six to twelve days, and was frequently visited by 
great crowds of people. 

In the Middle Ages the English were not the great 
comm-ercial people that they have since become. 
For a long time wool was the chief export of the 
country. Sheepskins, hides, leather, salted fish, tin, 
and lead also found a foreign market. So great was 
the profit in the wool trade in comparison with the 
meager returns from cultivating the land that for 
many years before the discovery of America the 
English farms were gradually being turned into sheep 
pastures. 

The wines, dried fruits, and various manufactured 
articles of the European countries were brought to 
England to exchange for her products. For a long 
time foreign merchants carried on the most of this 
trade. But toward the close of the Middle Ages 
more and more English merchants began to visit 
foreign countries for the purpose of commerce. 

The Beginning of Trial by Jury. — For a long time 
after the Norman Conquest England was governed 
by the king with the assistance of the king's council, 
which was composed of a few of the chief officers of 
the realm. Besides the king and his private council 
there was a great national council, made up of all 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 175 



the feudal noblemen to whom the king had granted 
land, and of the archbishops, bishops, and abbots 
of the church in England. Before the discovery 
of America, however, several new ways of doing things 
in the government had grown up in England. These 
new practices are important to us because we have 
most of them in our own country today. 

In early England a person who was accused of 
committing a crime 
might clear himself of 
the charge by swear- 
ing that he was not 
guilty and then bring- 
ing a certain jiumber 
of his neighbors to 
swear that they be- 
lieved him. Another 
early form of trial was 
called the ordeal. 
The ordeal usually 
consisted in carrying a piece of hot iron in the hand 
or plunging the arm into boiling water. It was 
believed that God would protect the innocent man 
from harm. If the person who was tried by the 
ordeal was badly burned it was thought to be a proof 
of his guilt. After the Norman Conquest trial by 
battle was introduced into England. In this form of 
trial the accused man and his accuser fought each 
other with sword or clubs, in the belief that God 
would give the victory to the one who was right. 

None of these forms of trial seem very sensible to 
us. Nowadays, when a man is accused of committing 




TRIAL BY BATTLE 
It was believed that God would give victory 
to the one whose cause was just. 



176 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

a crime he is brought before a body of men called the 
grand jury. This jury hears the witnesses against 
him, and if its members think he ought to be tried 
they send him before another jury of twelve men 
called the petit or trial jury. The petit jury listens 
to the witnesses on both sides of the case, and then 
decides whether the accused man is guilty or not 
guilty. 

Our jury system grew up in England in the fol- 
lowing way. In the twelfth century King Henry II 
used to send his judges traveling through the counties 
of England to try cases and settle disputes. \\Tien 
these judges came to a district, a body of men, not 
less than sixteen in number, were appointed to report 
to them the criminals in that district who ought to 
be tried. This was the origin of the grand jury. 

About the same time it was provided that any one 
who objected to the trial by battle could have his 
case decided by twelve men, chosen from the vicinity, 
who knew all the facts in the matter. A little later 
witnesses were called to tell the twelve men any 
facts that they themselves might not know. Finally 
the time came when the jury of twelve men decided 
wholly upon what the witnesses told them as our 
petit juries do now. Our jury system was brought 
to this country by the earliest English settlers. 

The Great Charter. — King John, the son of Henry II, 
in whose reign the jury began to be used, was the 
meanest of the English kings. He was false to his 
friends, insolent and cruel to his people, and shame- 
less and wicked in all his ways. He laid heavy taxes 
upon the people, falsely accused them in order to make 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 



17 



them pay him large fmes, and plundered them in 
every other way that he could invent. 

At last the time came when the nobles of England 
could no longer endure the tyranny of King John. 
They led an army against him, and as all the people 
took sides with the 
nobles John was forced 
to yield. At Hunny- 
mede beside the 
Thames, in the year 
1215, the king signed 
the Great Charter, cr 
Magna Charta as it is 
commonly called. In 
this famous document 
the Idng promised that 
''no free man shall be 
imprisoned unless by 
the lawful judgment of 
his peers, or by the law 
of the land." He also 
declared that ''to none 
will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or 
justice." It was further agreed that in the future 
no taxes should be laid except by the consent of the 
common council of the nation. These great principles 
of liberty are still cherished in all English-speaking 
countries. 

The Origin of Parliament.— During the reigns of 
John's son, Henry III, and of Henry's son, Edward I, 
another important step was taken in the making of 
the government of England. Previous to this time 




KING JOHN SIGNING THE GREAT 
CHARTER 



178 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



only the nobles and the leaders of the church had 
belonged to the great council of the kingdom. Now 
it seemed right that the landowners in the country 
and the rich merchants in the growing towns, who 
were paying a large part of the taxes, should also have 
a voice in the government. As it was impossible 
for all of these people to attend the great council, 




THE BRITISH HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT 
This i3 the building in which the laws of Great Britain are made at the present time. 

they were asked to elect a few men to act for them. 
Men thus chosen to act for the people are called repre- 
sentatives. At first the representatives of the English 
common people met in the same room with the nobles 
and the clergy. About this time the great council 
began to be called a Parliament. 

In the course of time the representatives of the 
people in the Parliament, or lawmaking body, met 
separately and were called the House of Commons. 
The nobles and the clergy who continued to meet 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 179 

together were called the House of Lords. In this 
way the Parliament of England came to consist of 
two houses as it does at the present time. We have 
followed the example of England in this respect, 
and have two houses in Congress, which is our law- 
making body at Washington, and in the legislatures, 
which make the laws in each of our states. 

During the Middle Ages the power of the king in 
England was hmited by the great feudal nobles of 
his kingdom. It was these lords who forced King 
John to sign the Magna Charta. Just before America 
was discovered there was a great war in England 
between two parties of the nobility. This war, which 
was fought to decide who should be the king of the 
country, is called the War of the Roses, because a red 
rose was the badge of one party and a white rose of 
the other. 

The War of the Roses lasted thirty years and before 
it was ended the greater part of the nobles of England 
were slain in battle or driven from the country. Henry 
Tudor, who was crowned king as Henry VII, on the 
last battlefield of the war, had more power than any 
earlier king of England had possessed because there 
were so few nobles left to oppose his will. After his 
time the struggle to preserve English Hberty from the 
tyranny of the king was carried on, not only by the 
nobility, but by the people. 

The English Interfere in Ireland. — For a long 
time England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were 
separate countries without any connection with each 
other. But the English kings were not satisfied until 
they had brought all the other countries in the British 



180 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Islands under their authority. So in the course of 
time the king of England came to rule over the united 
kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, 

In the earlier part of the Middle Ages the civiliza- 
tion of Ireland was superior to that of England. In 
art, in music, and in metal work the Irish were unsur- 
passed. The most beautiful books in all Europe 
were made in the writing rooms of the Irish monasteries. 
But Ireland had failed to become a united nation. 
There were many tribes in the island, each ruled 
by a petty chieftain, and these tribes were almost 
always at war with each other. This lawless condi- 
tion led to the first English interference in the country. 

When Dermot, the king of one of the Irish tribes, 
was defeated in battle and driven from his own country, 
he asked IGng Henry II of England to help him recover 
his kingdom. Henry II told him that he could have 
any English knights whom he could persuade to fight 
for him. Dermot found it easy to induce several 
of the warhke English knights to accompany him 
to Ireland, and with their help he soon won back his 
lands. One of these English knights married the 
Irish king's daughter, and when the king died, ruled 
in his stead. 

From the first the English rule in Ireland was 
violent and cruel, and the Irish were continually 
fighting the newcomers. Soon Henry II went to 
Ireland with an army and both the English and the 
Irish chieftains acknowledged his authority. Henry II 
restored order in Ireland, but he could not stay long 
in the country, and when he left, the old lawlessness 
and violence broke out again. The EngHsh held 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 181 



only a small part of the country in the vicinity of 
Dubhn. For a long time the rest of the island was 
ruled by its own petty kings. 

Irish affairs ran on in this way for hundreds of 
years. In the sixteenth century the English made 
further attempts to rule Ireland, but these only led 
to rebeUion in the island and to misery for its people. 
It was not until 
the seventeenth 
century that Ire- 
land was finally 
conquered by 
Cromwell, one of 
the greatest of 
English soldiers. 
This conquest was 
attended with 
great slaughter, 
which the Irish 
people have never 
forgotten. 

The Union of 
England, Wales, and Scotland.— Wales was conquered 
by King Edward I. Protected by the mountainous 
character of their country the Welsh had never really 
submitted to the English rule before this time, though 
they had sometimes been compelled to pay tribute to 
the English kings. Edward I invaded Wales, won 
several victories, and at last forced all the Welsh to 
promise obedience to him. He then built several 
strong castles in Wales in order to hold the country in 
subjection. 




CAERNARVON CASTLE. WALES 
This is one of the castles built by Edward I to hold 
the Welsh in subjection. 



182 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

To please the Welsh people King Edward told them 
that he would give them a prince Who had been born 
in their country, and who had never spoken a word 
of English. He then presented to them his baby 
son, who had recently been born in one of the Welsh 
castles. Ever since that day the oldest son of the 
English king has been called the Prince of Wales. 
Wales has long been in reality a part of England, 
though many of its people still cling to the Welsh 
language. 

WTiile Edward I was the king of England the king 
of Scotland died, leaving no children. Several of 
his relatives claimed the throne and the Scots asked 
the English king to decide which one of the claimants 
was their rightful king. Edward said that before 
he would do this the Scots must acknowledge him 
as their overlord. They agreed, and Edward decided 
in favor of John Balliol, though many thought that 
Robert Bruce had quite as good a claim. 

Soon John Balliol refused to obey the English king, 
who promptly led his army into Scotland, captured 
its king, and declared himself the king of the country. 
When Edward returned to England he carried with 
him a stone upon which the kings of Scotland had 
always sat when the}^ were crowned. This stone 
was called the Stone of Scone. Edward put it in 
the seat of the chair in Westminster Abbey, upon which 
the English king always sits when he is crowned, 
and there it may be seen to this day 

The Scots soon found a gallant leader in William 
Wallace, who began to drive the English garrisons 
from his country. The English promptly sent a great 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 183 



army into Scotland. When the EngHsh leaders 
offered to make peace if Wallace would submit, he 
replied, ''We have not come to make peace, but to 
free our country." In the battle which followed, 
Wallace won a complete vic- 
tory. The next year the 
English came in greater force, 
and this time the great Scot- 
tish leader was defeated. 
Later he was captured by the 
English and put to death. 
William Wallace is looked on 
today as one of the great 
national heroes of Scotland. 

The Scots soon found 
another great leader in Robert 
Bruce, a grandson of the 
Bruce who had claimed the 
throne when Edward I decided 
in favor of John Balliol. 
Robert Bruce was often de- 
feated by the English, and 




THE CORONATION CHAIR 
IN WESTMINSTER 
ABBEY, LONDON 
This is the chair upon which the 
Il«rl TTinnv VinirLrAQrIfli English king sits when he is crowned. 
11 a U many ll a 1 1 U I e a a L n under its seat is the stone of Scone, 

which Edward I carried away from 
Scotland. 



escapes, but he fought on and 
on. Edward I died while on 

his way to Scotland, and when his son, Edward II, 
invaded that country with a great army he was over- 
whelmingly defeated by Robert Bruce in the famous 
battle of Bannockburn. Shortly after this the English 
acknowledged the independence of Scotland. 

For nearly three hundred years after the days of 
Robert Bruce, England and Scotland were distinct 



184 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

nations. About the time that the English began to 
settle America, King James VI of Scotland inherited 
the English throne. In England he is known as 
James I. His accession united England and Scotland 
under the same king, and the union thus formed has 
never been broken. 

The English Language. — For a long time after 
the Norman Conquest three languages were widely 
used in England. Latin was heard in all the serv- 
ices of the church and in the work of the schools. 
It was also the language in which nearly -all books 
were written. The laws were for a long time in Latin, 
but were later written in French. After the Norman 
Conquest French was spoken by the king and his 
court, and by the Norman nobles who settled in 
England. It was also the speech commonly heard in 
Parliament. We might call it the language of poUte 
society. There were many French songs and French 
romances. The great mass of the people, however, 
still clung to the old Anglo-Saxon or English speech, 
but this was so different from the English that we 
speak that we should find it very difficult to under- 
stand it. 

As the years passed, the English language as we 
know it slowly developed. The greater part of its 
words, particularly of those most frequently used in 
daily speech, are from the Anglo-Saxon, but many 
of them have changed in form and in spelling. Many 
new words were introduced into English from the 
French spoken by the Norman nobles. Sometimes 
these new French words displaced the older Anglo- 
Saxon ones. More frequently the Anglo-Saxon word 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 185 

was kept, and the borrowed French word added to 
the language. It is due to this practice of using 
French words with the same meaning as Anglo-Saxon 
words that our English of today has so many pairs 
of words, or synonyms, with very nearly the same 
meaning; such as folk and people, give and present, 
or food and nourishment. 

In the making of the English language sometimes 
a word was borrowed directly from the Latin and 
another from the French, with the result that we have 
three words which mean very much the same thing. 
For example, ask is Anglo-Saxon, inquire is French, 
and interrogate is Latin. The force and beauty of 
our English speech is due, in large part, to its rich- 
ness in these words which have very nearly the same 
meaning. 

The Earliest English Literature. — Most of the 
books written in England during the Middle Ages 
were written in Latin by the monks. Many of these 
books were about the history of the country. The 
first real literature in the English language consists 
of ballads sung by wandering minstrels. These 
ballads, which were sung long before they were written, 
are stories about the bold outlaw, Robin Hood, and 
other heroes whom the people loved. The minstrel 
who could sing them was ever a welcome guest. 

In the latter part of the fourteenth century the 
Bible was translated into EngHsh by John Wycliffe, 
a famous clergyman, who was a teacher at the Uni- 
versity of Oxford. About the same time the "Canter- 
bury Tales," the first great poem in the English 
language, was written. In this poem Chaucer, the 



186 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

earliest of the great English poets, tells the story of a 
band of merry pilgrims who travel together from the 
Tabard Inn, near London, to Canterbury. In this 
company of pilgrims we have a picture of all the 
classes of people in England in Chaucer's time: the 
knight, the squire, the monk, the nun, the parish 
priest, the merchant, the weaver, the plowman, and 




CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY PILGRIMS 

many others. As they ride along together the}^ tell 
the stories which compose the greater part of the 
''Canterbury Tales." 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. How does farming in America today differ from farming in Eng- 
land in the Middle Ages? 

2. How does a boy learn a trade now? 

3. May a thrifty mechanic of today look forward to owning a shop 
and employing other workmen? 

4. Is there a pubhc market in your town? 

5. Visit the court in your county and notice what the judge and the 
jury do, 

6. Do all persons who pay taxes today have a voice in the 
government? 

7. Make a list of pairs of words having the same meaning. 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Histories of England by Thomas, Larson, Cheyney, Terry, Andrews, 

Wrong, Gardiner, and Green. 
Cheyney: Industrial History of England. 



GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 187 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Blaisdell: Stories from English History. 
Gu^rber : The Story of the English. 
Church : Stories from English History. 
Tappan : England's Story. 
Dickens : Child's History of England. 
Yonge : Young Folks' History of England. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 

Europe at the Time America was Discovered. — 

Christopher Columbus first saw land on the western 
side of the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. This is the year 
from which we date the discovery of America. But 
Columbus saw only a few islands and a bit of the 
coast of the mainland. He never knew that he had 
found two vast continents in which were mighty rivers, 
great plains, and lofty mountains. For nearly two 
hundred years after Columbus' time brave and patient 
European explorers and settlers were slowly finding 
out these facts. This was the real discovery of America 
by Europe. It is our purpose in this chapter to try to 
understand what Europe was hke when its people 
first began to be interested in America. 

We have frequently spoken of the time from the 
fall of the Roman Empire to the discovery of America 
as the Middle Ages. The time since 1492 is called the 
Period of Modern History. It is not meant by this 
that there was any sudden change in 1492, but only 
that about that time the ways of thinking and living 
which we have now began to take the place of those 
which had prevailed during the Middle Ages. 

In the first place, the map of Europe in the sixteenth 
century began to look very much as it does now. 
In the early centuries of the Christian era all southern 

(188) 



EUROPE 

U THE IGth CENTURY 

SCALF OF iVllLES 



100 200 300 -too 

Possessions of the House of Hapsbur^: 
Spanish line 

[ Austrian line 

European Empire ol Charles V 
about 1520 




10 Longitude West from Greenwich 



Longitude East from Greenwicli 10 




.Syracuse ^'\rJv fiHOOeS^ \ > y^ 

-tV ^l j'V (7-„ ('enicHT-"^ < — '"^ Copyright Ifti 8 by the John C.W 



by the John C.Winston Co, 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 189 

and western Europe was included in the Roman 
Empire. When that empire was overrun by the Ger- 
man tribes, western Europe was divided among them. 
During the long period of the Middle Ages the nations 
of modern Europe had been slowly developing -as a 
result of the gradual union of the Germanic peoples 
with the Roman inhabitants among whom they 
lived. This was the time when, under the feudal 
system, the nobles governed the people who lived upon 
their lands. But by 1492 England, France, and Spain 
had gro^\ai to be strong nations whose kings were 
obeyed by all their subjects. We have already seen 
how this change came about in England, and how the 
War of the Roses gave the king of that country more 
power than he had ever possessed before. 

France. — In the Middle Ages it frequently happened 
that the kings of France had less power than some of 
the great nobles in their realm. But as time passed, 
several things helped to increase the royal power in 
that country. Many nobles who went on the crusades 
never returned, and the king recovered the lands which 
they had held of him. In other instances rebellious 
French nobles were conquered by the king and their 
power taken away from them. In these ways the 
royal power grew in France until there was no check 
upon the will of the king. In the sixteenth century 
Francis the First could say with truth, ''I am the 
king, I intend to be obeyed." 

Spain. — Early in the eighth century Spain was over- 
run by the Arabs and Moors from Africa. These 
invaders were Mohammedans and nearly all the people 
of the Spanish peninsula accepted that rehgious faith. 



190 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

The Arabs in Spain developed a high degree of civiHza- 
tion. They built splendid cities ; their agriculture and 
commerce were prosperous; and at one time their 
schools were the most famous in Europe. 

The Arabs never fully succeeded in their efforts to 
conquer some of the strongholds in the mountains of 
northern Spain. The Spanish Christians clung to 




iBIf"'^"' 



THE ALHAMBRA 

A famous Moorish palace in Spain. 



these mountainous regions, and after a time they 
began to win back their country from its Mohammedan 
invaders. As they did this, several small kingdoms 
were formed. Castile and Aragon were the most 
important of these states, and just at the close of the 
Middle Ages they were united by the marriage of Queen 
Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon. 
The very year that America was discovered Ferdinand 
and Isabella captured Granada, the last great Moorish 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 191 



city in the land. With its fall, Arab rule in Spain 
disappeared forever. 

The king of Spain, like the French king, possessed 
unhmited power. The Spanish people had no part in 
their own government. The army enforced the will of 
the king. The 
laws were made 
at his pleasure. 
The judges whom 
he appointed did 
his bidding. The 
taxes paid by the 
rich cities in 
the Netherlands, 
which belonged to 
Spain in the six- 
teenth century, 
and the royal in- 
come from the 
gold and silver of 
Mexico and Peru 
after the Spanish 
conquests in 
America made 
him very rich. In 
the century following the discovery of America the 
king of Spain was the most powerful monarch in the 
world. 

Germany and Italy. — Germany and Italy had failed 
to become strong and united nations like England, 
France, and Spain. Germany was still broken up into 
a large number of states, in each of which there was a 




LOGGIA DEI LANZI, FLORENCE 
This beautiful porch adorned with works of art 
stands near the center of Florence, which was one of 
the famous cities of Italy when America was 
discovered. 



192 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



prince who managed affairs very much as he pleased. 
Austria was the largest and most powerful of the 
German states in the sixteenth century. In Italy 
there were several states and free cities, but there was 
no union between them. The rich cities of Venice, 

Genoa, and Flor- 
ence were the 
most famous in 
Italy. AH' the 
free Italian cities 
were extremely 
jealous of each 
other and were 
often at war with 
one another. 

Manufacturing 
and Commerce 
just before the 
Discovery of 
America. — Manu- 
facturing and 
commerce grew 
very rapidly in 
Europe during the 
closing centuries of the Middle Ages. During the 
crusades the peoples of western Europe became better 
acquainted with the wealth of the East, and soon a 
rich trade sprang up between the seaports of Italy and 
the cities of Egypt, western Asia, and the Black Sea 
region. 

At first Genoa led the other Italian cities in com- 
merce. Great merchant vessels laden with the oils 




A STREET IN THE OLD MARKET IN 
FLORENCE 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 193 

and wines of Italy and France, the figs of Spain, the 
metals and leather of Germany, the linens, the woolens, 
the gold and silver ornaments, and the other manu- 
factured goods of the cities of Italy and France sailed 
from her harbor for Constantinople and other eastern 




From model in Commercial Museum, Philadelphia 
VENETIAN WARSHIP 
It was 192 feet long, swift and seaworthy. 



ports. They brought back the grain and hides of 
southern Russia, the fine woolens of Asia, and the 
silks and spices of the Far East. 

About a hundred years before the discovery of 
America the leadership in commerce passed from Genoa 
to Venice, and for a long time the latter place was the 
richest city in Europe. Venice had long been noted 



194 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

for its manufactures. It made the finest linen in Italy; 
its silks, laces, and leather goods were unsurpassed ; and 
its glassware, then as now, was famous for its delicacy 
and its beauty. But the glory of Venice was its com- 
merce. It possessed three thousand merchant vessels 
and a fleet of three hundred warships to protect them. 

Every year three great fleets of trading ships sailed 
away from Venice. To protect these fleets from the 
pirates, who were very numerous in those days, each 
of them was accompanied by several war galleys, 
rowed by oarsmen. One of these fleets visited the 
Black Sea region to traffic for the goods in which it 
abounded; another sailed to Egypt to meet vessels 
coming down the Nile and the caravans from Arabia 
and the Far East ; the third fleet, touching at the ports 
to trade, coasted along Sicily, northern Africa, Spain, 
western France, and finally made its way to England 
and the Netherlands. Besides the exchange of wares 
in this way, the goods of Italy and the East were 
carried by traders over the Alps and down the rivers 
and along the roads of Germany and France, and to 
the various cities in those countries. 

During the later Middle Ages the Netherlands, which 
included the Belgium and Holland of today, was the 
richest manufacturing region in all Europe. Bruges, 
Ghent, and Antwerp were its chief cities, but there 
were scores of other rich and prosperous towns. In 
these cities all sorts of woolen cloth, linens, silks, 
velvets, and laces, as well as hardware, fine pottery, 
and many other articles, were made in great quantities. 
In the markets and fairs of the Netherlands one might 
see traders from every country in Europe. 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 195 




196 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

The cities of Germany, likewise, came to be busy 
hives of manufacturing industry, and a prosperous 
commerce grew up between them in the later Middle 
Ages. In order to protect their merchants from pirates 
and robbers, as well as from the unjust taxes of the 
petty princes of the land, many of whom were little 
better than robbers, nearly one hundred of the German 
cities formed a great league known as the Hanseatic 
League. This famous league kept many soldiers and 
sometimes waged war on great nations like Denmark 
or Sweden. It also maintained great trading stations 
at places as widely scattered as Bergen in Norway, 
Bruges in the Netherlands, London in England, and 
Novgorod in Russia. 

Such was the industrial condition of Europe at the 
time of the discover}^ of America. Its cities were 
filled with busy workmen and thriving merchants. 
Caravans of traders on the land, and a multitude of 
ships at sea, carried its products from one country to 
another. Men w^ho were growing rich through manu- 
facturing and commerce were supplanting the mail- 
clad knights. The city had taken the place of the 
castle as the center of European life. 

Great Inventions and New Ideas. — The beginning 
of Modern History was marked by the general intro- 
duction and use of certain inventions which were 
destined to bring about great changes in the life of all 
civihzed peoples. Gunpowder was the first of these 
famous discoveries. It is probable that the Chinese 
knew how to make gunpowder long before it was known 
in Europe, but they used it only to make the fire- 
works for which they are still noted. 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 197 



It is not known by whom gunpowder was first used 

in Europe. The city of Florence in Italy had cannon 

as early as the fourteenth 

century, but gunpowder 

came into general use 

very slowly. The first 

guns were crude afTairs 

which made a great deal 

of noise but did very little 

damage. But as people 

learned to make better 

powder and to improve 

the guns in which they 

used it, gunpowder had 

an influence which few 

other inventions have 

surpassed. The common 

soldier with a musket in 

his hand became more 

than a match for the 

mail-clad knight. The 

walls of the old stone castles or of the towns could 

easily be battered 
down with cannon. 
The use of armor, 
spears, bows and 
arrows, and the de- 
fensive value of cas- 
tles and town walls 
all disappeared as a 

result of the general introduction of gunpowder in war. 

It helped to make all men equal in strength. 






From an old print 
AN EARLY MUSKET 
When firing this clumsy gun the 
soldier rested it upon the support which 
he carries in his right hand. 




From an old drawing 
AN EARLY CANNON 



198 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



The mariners' compass began to be used in Europe 
during the later Middle Ages. At first it consisted 
of a magnetized needle placed upon a straw or cork 
floating in water. When some one thought of putting 
the needle on a pivot, and of protecting it with a box, 
the compass that we have was invented. By helping 
sailors to find their bearings at any hour of the day or 

night, and in all kinds of 
weather, the compass did much 
to make long sea voyages 
possible. 

The lens was another im- 
portant discovery in the later 
part of the Middle Ages. 
Spectacles were first used 
toward the close of the thir- 
teenth century. Although the 
telescope, the microscope, and 
the camera were not invented 
until much later, all of these 
useful instruments were made 
possible by the invention of 
the lens. 

But the most wonderful and important of all the 
inventions which mark the dawn of modern history 
was the art of printing. Before the fifteenth century 
no one in all Europe had ever known any way of 
getting a new copy of a book except by writing it out 
by hand. Early in the fifteenth century some people 
in the Netherlands had engraved pictures or pages of 
books upon wooden blocks, passed ink over these blocks 
and then printed by applying leaves of paper to them. 




- - FTom an old print 

AN EARLY PRINTING 
PRESS 
It was from such simple begin- 
nings that the great printing 
presses of our own time have 
developed. 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 199 

This was a slow and expensive process. Finally Guten- 
berg made metallic type, which could be set up, used 
for printing, and then distributed. Such type could 
be used again and again. Their invention was the real 
invention of printing. 

The people of Europe learned from the Arabs how 
to make paper. Before its introduction books had 
been written upon parchment made of sheep skins. 
But paper made of linen rags was much cheaper and 
more convenient, and the general use of it made it 
possible for the printers to do their work. 

The importance of the invention of printing can 
hardly be overestimated. Books were printed in great 
numbers and scattered among the people. This made 
it possible for a great many more people than ever 
before to secure an education. In the Middle Ages 
only a very few people could read. Nowadays in most 
civilized countries the number of people who cannot 
read is very small. 

It was believed in the Middle Ages that the earth is 
the center of the universe, and that the planets, the 
sun, and the stars all revolve around it. Just about 
the time that the people in Europe were beginning to 
hear of America, Copernicus, a great astronomer, 
attacked their old ideas about the universe and taught 
that the earth and the other planets revolve around 
the sun. Many of the learned men of the time thought 
that his idea was foolish and wicked, but it was proved 
to be true and became the basis of our science of 
astronomy. 

The Revival of Learning. — We have seen how the 
Greeks and the Romans had great men of letters, who 



200 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



wrote some of the most famous books in the world. 
During the long centuries of the Middle Ages these 
books, though not entirely forgotten, were sadly neg- 
lected. As we draw near the dawn of Modern History 
we find men once more taking dehght in reading and 
studying the ancient masterpieces. This renewed 
interest in the literature of Greece and Rome is called 
the Revival of Learning. It was natural that the 
Revival of Learning should begin in 
the great cities of Italy for the Ital- 
ians were the descendants of the 
old Romans and their language was 
very much like the Latin speech. 
The Italians could see the ruins 
of ancient Roman buildings all 
about them. Somehow they seemed 
nearer the ancient civilization than 
any other people in Europe. 

Dante, one of the greatest poets 
who ever lived, was born at Florence in 1265. Dante 
loved and imitated Vergil, the most famous of the 
Latin poets, but he wrote his own noble poem, ^^The 
Divine Comedy," in Italian. From this time, more 
and more, the great poets of Europe began to write in 
their own languages instead of the Latin, in which 
nearly everything had been written in the Middle 
Ages. 

Petrarch, the successor of Dante, almost worshipped 
the great Latin writers of ancient Rome, and gave 
much of his life to collecting their works. Petrarch 
and the Italian scholars who followed him hunted 
through the libraries of the monasteries for the neg- 




DANTE 

The great poet. 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 201 

lected manuscripts of the old classic writers, and 
succeeded in rescuing many a long-forgotten book from 
destruction. They made careful copies of these old 
books, and presently the invention of printing made it 
possible for great numbers of people to read them. 
At first very few of the scholars in Italy could read the 
Greek books which they found, but teachers of Greek 
came from Constantinople and soon the literary 
treasures of ancient Greece were as accessible as those 
of Rome. 

As the news of this revival of the ancient learning 
and literature spread over Europe scholars from the 
other countries began to cross the Alps to study in 
Italy. When they returned to Germany, France, and 
England, they carried the new learning to many eager 
young men whom they taught in their own lands. This 
great revival of learning was going on just at the time 
that America was discovered. 

The Revival of Learning had a very great influence 
upon the schools of Europe. Boys were taught the 
languages and literatures of Greece and Rome because 
at that time there was so little literature in their own 
languages that was really worth studying. In this way 
Greek and Latin came to be regarded as the most 
important branches of study in schools, and they held 
this place until very recently. Even now we give a 
great deal of time to the study of Latin in our high 
schools, although the reasons which gave it a large 
place in the schools of four hundred years ago no longer 
exist. 

The Revival of Learning stirred up the people of 
Europe to write books of their own, and in time they 



202 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



came to have a literature in their own languages that 
excelled the literatures of Greece and Rome. Erasmus, 
the greatest scholar of his time in Europe, wrote many 
interesting books. His English friend. Sir Thomas 
More, wrote ^ ^Utopia,'' in which he told the story of 
an imaginary country where the people were all happy 
because they all treated each other with kindness and 

justice. In the latter part 
of the sixteenth century, 
while Queen Elizabeth ruled 
in England, a wonderful 
literature grew up in that 
country. Many famous 
English authors lived and 
wrote at this time, but the 
greatest of them all was 
Shakespeare. 

Some Great Artists and 
Famous Pictures. — Just as 
there was a new interest in 
Greek and Latin books, so 
there was a return of the art 
of the ancient world. The Greeks were the greatest 
artists of ancient times. The Romans imitated the 
Greeks, and wherever they ruled there were pictures 
and statues. For several centuries after the fall of 
the Roman Empire very little attention was paid to 
art in western Europe. In the later Middle Ages the 
people began once more to take an interest in paint- 
ing and sculpture. At first their pictures and statues 
were very imperfect. But as they grew better 
acquainted with the masterpieces of the Greeks and 




••MONA LISA" 
Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 203 




THE CHURCH OF ST. PETER AT ROME 
The large building at the right of the church is 
the Vatican palace, the home of the pope. 



Romans they became more skillful. In the sixteenth 
century in Italy, and a little later in Germany, Spain, 
and the Nether- 
lands, we find the 
greatest painters 
of the world. 

There were 
many famous ar- 
tists in Italy at 
this time, but the 
names of Leo- 
nardo da Vinci, 
Raphael, and 
Michael Angelo 
stand at the head 
of the list. Leonardo da Vinci gave us one of the best 

^ known pictures in the world, 

the ''Mona Lisa,'' now in the 
gallery of the Louvre, in Paris. 
Raphael is best remembered 
as a painter of madonnas. 
The^'Sistine Madonna,'' which 
may be seen in the gallery in 
Dresden but which is f amiUar 
through the many repro- 
ductions of it, is his master- 
piece. Michael Angelo was a 
great architect, a great sculp- 
tor, and a great painter. As 
an architect he helped build 
the Church of St. Peter at Rome; as a sculptor he 
is well represented by his beautiful statue of David; 




From a -painting by Holbein 
ERASMUS 



204 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



and as a painter he covered with glorious pictures the 
walls and ceiling of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican, 

the pope's palace which 
stands beside the great 
Church of St. Peter. 

Albrecht Durer and 
Hans Holbein were the 
greatest German artists of 
this time. Durer is most 
famous for his wonderful 
woodcuts and engravings, 
though he was also a very 
great painter. Holbein 
was one of the best portrait 
painters of all time. On 
the page preceding is one 
of his best known pictures. 




A PORTRAIT OF VELASQUEZ 
PAINTED BY HIMSELF 



Velasquez and Murillo, the two 
leading Spanish painters, lived a 
century later than the great age 
of art in Italy. Velasquez is well 
represented by many beautiful 
portraits w^hich he painted. 
Murillo's ''Holy Family" and 
other pictures of a similar char- 
acter still have a host of admirers. 

About the time of Velasquez 
and Murillo the Netherlands had 
three supremely great painters in 
Rubens, Rembrandt, and Van 
Dyke. ''The Descent from the Cross," in the Cathe- 
dral at Antwerp, is the greatest picture that Rubens 




From a -painting by Van Dyle 
BABY STUART 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 205 

ever painted. Rembrandt is well known by his splen- 
did picture, ''The Night- Watch." Van Dyke was one 
of the finest portrait painters of the world. At the 
bottom of the opposite page is one of his pictures. 

The Reformation. — The time of change from the 
Middle Ages to the Modern Period in history, when 
so many great inventors, discoverers, scholars, and 
artists were at work in Europe, is often called the 
Renaissance, which means rebirth. The people of 
Europe were outgrowing the childishness and ignorance 
of the Middle Ages, and coming to think and to hve 
more as men had thought and hved in the best days of 
Greece and Rome, and as they do today. In this 
time, when everything was being reborn, great changes 
took place in the religious beliefs and practices. These 
changes in religion are called the Reformation. 

Through the Middle Ages the Catholic Church, with 
the pope at its head, had been the only church in 
western Europe. Nearly everyone belonged to it. 
But at the time of the discovery of America there 
were many people in the church who were dissatisfied 
with it. Some of them no longer beheved all that 
it taught; others questioned its authority to govern 
them as it did; while many objected to the worldli- 
ness of some of its leaders and desired a purer religious 
life. In fact, all good men in the church felt the 
need of a reform in the fives of its members, but they 
did not agree as to the best way of making it. 

Those who wanted to change the form of govern- 
ment of the church and to reject a part of its teach- 
ings, as well as to reform the lives of the people, were 
led by Martin Luther and John Calvin. Luther was 



206 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

the son of poor peasants in Germany. In spite of 
poverty he managed to secure a good education and 
to become a teacher in one of the universities. Calvin 
was a Frenchman, but because of the persecution in 
his native land he lived most of his life in Geneva in 
Switzerland. Those who followed Luther and Calvin 
in breaking away from the Catholic Church and in 
forming new churches are called Protestants. In time, 
many people in northern Europe became Protestants. 

The Lutherans, as the followers of Luther were 
called, were mostly in Germany. The greater part of 
the Protestants of France, the Netherlands, England, 
and Scotland were Calvinists. The Presbyterian 
Church was organized by the followers of Calvin. The 
Calvinists had strict ideas about morals, and these 
ideas, which were later brought to America by the 
Puritans, have had a great influence upon our people. 

The Lutherans and the Calvinists were almost as 
much opposed to each other as they were to the 
Catholic Church. One result of the strife between 
them was to check the growth of Protestantism. 
Another result of the failure of the Protestants to 
agree among themselves was the development of the 
many differing Protestant denominations that we 
find at the present time. 

Many good men in the Catholic Church earnestly 
desired to reform the manners and morals of the 
people, but were opposed to making any change in the 
teachings of the church or to lessening in any way the 
authority of the pope. Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish 
soldier, was the most famous reformer within the 
church. Loyola devoted his life to the service of the 



THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 207 

church, and organized those who joined him in that 
service into a reHgious society, the Jesuits. By their 
preaching, by teaching the children in the schools 
which they founded, and by their missionary labors in 
all parts of the world, the Jesuits did much to check 
the spread of the Protestant movement. The Reforma- 
tion promoted real piety and purer living alike in those 
countries that became Protestant and in those that 
remained true to the Catholic faith. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. How do our ways of thinking and living differ from those of the 
people of the Middle Ages? 

2. Find upon the map all the places mentioned in this chapter. 

3. Find out what great inventions were made during the nineteenth 
century. 

4. Do you know of any important inventions made during the last 
twenty-five years? 

5. Dante and Shakespeare are two of the world's greatest poets. 
Find out what each of them wrote. 

6. Find copies of as many pictures as you can that were painted by 
the great artists of the Renaissance. 

7. Have we any great poets or painters now? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Robinson: History of Western Europe, Chapters XXII-XXVII. 
Seignobos: History of Mediceval and Modern Civilization, Chapters 

XV-XXI. 
Symonds: A Short History of the Renaissance. 
Hoyt: Great World Painters. 
Graves: A History of Education during the Middle Ages. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Dutton: Little Stories of France. 

Forman: Stories of Useful Inventions. 

Bonner: Child's History of France; Child's History of Spain. 

Home and Scobey: Stories of Great Artists. 

Conway: Children's Book of Art. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE EAST AND THE WEST 

The Wealth of the East. — There were civilized 
people in India and China at a very early period. 
It is probable that the civilization of China is almost 
as old as that of Egypt. But before the dawn of 
modern history the western peoples about whom we 
have been studying knew very little about these 
nations of the Far East, and the people of India and 
China were equally ignorant of Europe. Toward 
the close of the Middle Ages there grew up in Europe 
a great interest in eastern Asia, and a great desire 
to know more about it. In the end, this interest 
and this desire led to the discovery of America. 

This new European interest in the Far East arose 
because of the rich trade which was springing up 
with that part of the world. In the Middle Ages 
the people of Europe produced the bare necessities 
of life in their own countries, but for its luxuries they 
were dependent upon Asia. Their spices, perfumes, 
precious stones, costly woods, and finest wares of 
nearly every kind came from the East. 

In those days the food of the people was coarse, 
lacking in variety, and often very badly cooked. 
Such spices as pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, 
and nutmegs were eagerly sought after, because they 
helped to make the food of the time more palatable. 

(208) 



THE EAST AND THE WEST 209 

) 
For a long time only the rich could afford these spices, 
but as the trade in them grew they came into more 
general use. 

Spices are the products of tropical plants and 
trees, which grow only in a few parts of the world. 
In the Middle Ages the world's supply of pepper 
came from vines which grew in the forests along a 
^ stretch of the coast of southern India, some two hundred 
miles in length. Ginger was found in many parts 
of the East; especially in Arabia, India, and China. 
Cinnamon bark came from the interior of Ceylon, 
but also grew on the Indian coast. Cloves, nutmegs, 
and other spices were the native products of the 
Spice Islands, a group of small islands in the midst 
of the East Indies. From these same eastern islands 
came most of the drugs, perfumes, and dyes used in 
Europe. Camphor, for instance, is obtained from the 
wood of the camphor tree, which grows in eastern 
Asia and in the neighboring islands. Indigo, with 
which a deep blue color is produced, was grown 
and prepared for use as a dye in India. Another 
valuable dye was made from Brazil wood, which 
was found in southeastern Asia. Brazil in South 
America gets its name from the fact that it produces 
a similar dye-wood. The sugar cane is a native of 
Asia and from that continent a little sugar found its 
way to the markets of Europe. But in those days 
sugar cost too much to be an article of daily use. 
Honey was the common sweetening of the Middle 
Ages. 

The people who could afford them loved jewels and 
precious stones in the Middle Ages even more than 

14 



210 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

they do today. For these coveted articles of luxury 
they looked to the East. Diamonds came from 
Golconda, in central India. Rubies, sapphires, and 
emeralds were found in many places in the Far East. 
The most beautiful pearls came from the Persian 
Gulf and from the strait between India and Ceylon. 
The native princes of India loved all these jewels 
and had great collections of them in their treasuries. 
Sometimes, when these princes were conquered by 
their enemies, their jewels were sold to traders, and 
wonderful stories are told of the number, size, and 
beauty of the precious stones that came to Europe 
from these sources. 

The artisans of the growing cities of western Europe 
were indebted to the East for much of the raw material 
which they were making into fine wares in their shops. 
From eastern lands came the cotton and the silk which 
were woven in the looms of Europe, as well as the dye- 
stuffs which gave them the brilliant colors so much 
admired in those times. Cabinetmakers used fragrant 
eastern woods, like sandal-wood, in the making of 
their costliest goods. 

The finest manufactured articles were of eastern 
workmanship. No glass maker in Europe could equal 
the finest glassware of western Asia. The metal 
work of the East was equally famous. The best 
weavers of the West were still surpassed by the 
eastern workmen in the production of fine cottons, 
silks, and linens. China was the home of the finest 
porcelain, which to this day is often called China- 
ware. The carpets and the rugs of Asia are still 
the most beautiful in the world. 



THE EAST AND THE WEST 



211 




212 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

This wealth of the Orient had a great deal to do 
with the growth of civilization in Europe in the later 
Middle Ages. Pilgrims and crusaders brought a 
knowledge of the luxuries of the East to the peoples 
of the West. When the people of Europe learned 
of the spices, jewels, and silks of Asia they began to 
desire them. Their efforts to satisfy this growing 
desire resulted in the development of a rich commerce 
with the East. 

The Routes of Trade. — The merchants of Genoa, 
Venice, and the other commercial cities of southern 
Europe bought the silks, spices, and other costly 
goods of Asia in the ports of the eastern Mediterranean 
and of the Black Sea. Beyond these ports there were 
three great lines of trade along which the products 
of the Far East were brought to the West. A careful 
study of the map will help us to understand how this 
trade was carried on. 

Chinese, Japanese, and Malay traders gathered 
the goods of the east coast of Asia and of the islands 
in the East Indies, and brought them to the city of 
Malacca on the strait which bears the same name. 
Here they were sold to merchants from India and 
Arabia, who took them to Calicut and other ports 
on the west coast of India. From these ports other 
traders made the long voyage across the Arabian 
Sea to the entrance to the Red Sea. Landed at Red 
Sea ports, the goods were carried across the country 
to the Nile, down which river boats brought them to 
Cairo and Alexandria. 

A second great trade route ran from the cities on 
the west coast of India to the Persian Gulf. Trading 



THE EAST AND THE WEST 213 

vessels discharged their cargoes at the head of this 
gulf, from which point trains of camels carried the 
goods up the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates 
rivers, and thence across the desert to the Mediter- 
ranean ports on the coast of Syria. This route had 
been used from the earliest times, and for a long while 




A CARAVAN OF CAMELS 
The rich goods of the Orient were carried across the deserts of western Asia 
upon the backs of camels. 

was the most important road joining the East and the 
West. 

The third route lay far to the north of the other 
two. Starting in northern China it ran across the 
deserts of central Asia to the neighborhood of the 
Caspian Sea. Here the road branched. One fork 
of it ran around the northern end of the Caspian 
Sea and finally reached the ports on the northern 
coast of the Black Sea. The other passed south of the 
Caspian and ended at the great port of Trebizond. 



214 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Along all these routes the goods of the East slowly- 
found their way to the markets of Europe. They 
were carried in many different ways, in strange look- 
ing eastern ships, on river boats, by caravans of 
camels or trains of pack mules, and sometimes on 
the backs of men. The traders on these routes were 
beset by many perils. They were robbed by pirates 
at sea and attacked by warlike tribes on land. The 
roads led across the deserts and over high mountains. 
But in spite of all the dangers and difficulties, a 
large and flourishing trade existed. The European 
merchants could always find the spices and perfumes, 
the jewels and silks and rugs of the far eastern lands 
in the cities on the Black Sea and along the shores 
of the eastern Mediterranean. 

The Story of Marco Polo. — For a long time the 
people of Europe knew very little about the eastern 
lands which supplied them with so many luxuries. 
In the thirteenth century a few explorers and travelers 
began to visit the Far East and some of them have 
written very interesting accounts of what they saw. 
The most famous of these books was the work of 
Marco Polo, a Venetian, who went with his father 
and his uncle to Cathay, as China was called, where 
they lived for many years. 

Marco Polo's story is a very interesting one. The 
elder Polos were adventurous merchants, who made 
their way eastward from the Black Sea until they 
reached the court of the emperor of China. At 
that time China, with nearly all of central Asia, was 
ruled by a people called the Mongols. The emperor, 
Kublai Elian by name, sent the Polos home with a 



THE EAST AND THE WEST 



215 



message to the pope, asking that Christian missionaries 
be sent to his country. 

When the elder Polos returned to the East they 




Marco Polos Journeys 

First Journey of Elder Polos 

Marco's Outward and Homeward Journey 



took with them young Marco, then a lad of seventeen 
years. The travelers slowly made their way across 
Asia and after a journey which lasted three years 



216 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

they came to the court of Kublai Khan. Here they 
hved for the next seventeen years. While his father 
and his uncle were engaged in making a fortune, Marco 
entered the service of the emperor of Cathay, in 
which his official duties led him to travel to all parts 
of eastern Asia. In this way he learned more about 
Cathay than any European had ever known before. 

The Polos had long wanted to return to their home 
in Venice, but the emperor was unwilling to let them 
go. At last they were chosen to escort a royal bride, 
who was sent all the way from Peking to Tabriz, 
the capital of Persia, to become the wife of the ruler 
of that country. It was decided to make the journey 
by sea. The party slowly made its way along the 
coast of China, Farther India, and Hindustan to the 
Persian Gulf. Upon reaching Persia they found that 
its ruler, who was to have been the royal bridegroom, 
had died; so the princess was married to his son. 
Then the Polos went home to Venice. 

They had been absent for twenty-four years, and 
at first no one knew them. Great was the rejoicing 
in Venice when it became known that the three long- 
lost citizens had come home. Nor had they returned 
empty handed. When they ripped open the seams 
of their coats there fell out such stores of diamonds 
and emeralds, rubies and sapphires as none of their 
friends had ever seen or imagined. 

When Marco Polo returned, Venice was at war 
with Genoa. Marco was given the command of a 
Venetian warship, but was taken prisoner in a naval 
battle and kept in prison in Genoa for a year. During 
his captivity he told the story of his travels in the 



THE EAST AND THE WEST 217 

East to one of his companions who wrote it as he told it. 
In a few years this book was widely read throughout 
Europe. Marco Polo's fascinating account of the 
wonders and riches of Cathay stirred up an intense 
interest in that far-away land. 

The Coming of the Turks. — During the most of the 
Middle Ages the ports of western Asia, which were 
visited by ships and traders from Europe, were in 
the hands of the Greeks of the Eastern Empire or of 
the Arabs. Now the Greeks and the Arabs were 
the most highly civilized people of that time and 
they welcomed and encoiu-aged commerce with the 
merchants from the West. In the eleventh century 
the barbarous Turks, a people from central Asia, 
threatened to destroy the Eastern Empire, but the 
crusades checked their conquests for a time. 

About the beginning of the fourteenth century the 
Ottoman Turks began to conquer the lands in 
Asia Minor. When they reached the sea they built 
ships and crossed into Europe, where they overran 
the Balkan peninsula. The whole of the Eastern 
Empire was now theirs except its capital at Constanti- 
nople. In 1453 they stormed that city, killed or sold 
into slavery most of its people, and made it the capital 
of a great Turkish empire. 

The Turks were a warlike and barbarous people. 
They cared little for commerce, and took away from 
the European merchants the trading privileges which 
the Greeks had been so eager to give them. They 
forced the trading cities on the Black Sea to pay a 
heavy tribute, and in a series of wars with Venice 
and Genoa took from those cities their possessions in 



218 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

the Greek islands. You will see by looking at the map 
on page 211 how the Turks at Constantinople ruined 
the great northern trade route from Asia to Europe. 

The routes through Syria and Egypt were still 
open and became of greater importance because 
the northern route was closed. Alexandria then 
became the greatest market for spices in the world. 
But this did not last long. In the opening years of 
the sixteenth century the Sultan, as the ruler of the 
Turks is called, invaded and conquered Syria and 
Egypt and made these countries a part of the Turkish 
Empire. The old trade routes between Asia and 
Europe were now all blocked by the Turks. 

The effect of the rise of the great Turkish Empire 
in the borderland between Europe and Asia was keenly 
felt in Europe. The great commercial cities in Italy, 
Hke Genoa and Venice, were nearly ruined by their 
wars with the Turks and the loss of their eastern 
trade. Never had there been greater demand in the 
markets of Europe for the goods of the Far East. 
This demand could no longer be suppUed in the old 
way. Everywhere men were talking of the possibility 
of finding some new way to the East, and a few bold 
and adventurous spirits began to search for it. This 
search was successful in a larger sense than anyone 
dreamed when it began, for it resulted in the finding 
of America. 

How the Portuguese Found a New Way to India. — 
The Portuguese were the first European people to 
find the sea route to India around Africa. It took 
nearly a hundred years of patient exploration to 
discover this new and safer way to bring the spices 



THE EAST AND THE WEST 219 

and rich wares of the East to the markets of Europe. 
We must next inquire how it was done. 

Portugal is a little country, but its location by the 
sea made its people a race of sailors. They had long 
traded with England and the Netherlands and they 
knew the products of Asia, for every year a Venetian 
fleet brought them to Lisbon. The Portuguese sea 
captains were also acquainted with 
the coasts of northwestern Africa. 

Prince Henry the Navigator, a 
younger son of the king of Portu- 
gal, was the greatest leader in the 
work of exploration by the Portu- 
guese. In 1418, when he was only 
twenty-four years old. Prince Henry 
went to live on a rocky cape in F^^^^^l^^^'^ 
southern Portugal, where for more prince henry 

^, ^ ^ , . 1 • ^- THE NAVIGATOR 

than forty years he spent his time 
in studying the art of navigation, in making maps, 
and in training the captains whom he sent out to 
explore the southern seas. Prince Henry was rich, 
and he spent his fortune freely in fitting out the ships 
in which his captains sailed. 

Many motives led Prince Henry the Navigator to 
undertake this work. He wished to fight the Moham- 
medan Moors in Africa and to spread the Christian 
faith in new lands. He knew that gold was brought 
across the desert from the west coast of Africa to 
the ports on the Mediterranean. If his ships could 
reach the gold coast this treasure might come straight 
to Portugal. Even greater than these motives was 
his curiosity about the unknown African coast. Prince 




220 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



Henry believed that it was possible to reach the 
East by sailing around Africa. If his captains could 
find this ocean route to India he would win a vast 
empire and untold wealth for Portugal. 

For some years little progress was made. The 
dangers and difficulties in the path of the fifteenth 
century explorer were very great. The ships of the 

time were small and clumsy. 
The sailors were ignorant and 
superstitious. Many of them 
feared that if they sailed too 
far from the land they could 
never get back again. Some 
of them thought that the heat 
was so great in the south that 
no man could live in it. Dry 
bread and salt beef were the 
only provisions on shipboard, 
and on long voyages many of 
the sailors sickened and died because of this fare. 

Year after year the gallant captains sent out by 
Prince Henry pushed farther and farther south along 
the west coast of Africa. In 1445 one of them reached 
Cape Verde, which means ^^ Green Cape" and marks 
the beginning of the fertile shores south of the Desert 
of Sahara. From this point the African coast trends 
eastward and the Portuguese were more hopeful 
than ever that they were on the way to India. Soon 
the Portuguese captains were bringing home gold 
and slaves from the coast of Guinea. 

Prince Henry the Navigator died in 1460, but his 
work was carried on by the kings of Portugal. The 




A PORTUGUESE SHIP 



THE EAST AND THE WEST 221 

bold Portuguese captains continued to work their 
way toward the southern point of Africa. In 1487, 
Bartholomew Diaz passed this point, which he named 
the Cape of Storms. When the king of Portugal 
saw this name in the report of Diaz, he said, ^^Nay, 
let it rather be called the Cape of Good Hope, since 
there is now much reason to believe that we have 
found the long sought ocean route to the Indies. '' 
Ten years later, in 1497, another Portuguese cap- 
tain, Vasco da Gama, rounded the Cape of Good 
Hope, explored the east coast of Africa, sailed boldly 
across the Indian Ocean to India, and returned to 
Portugal with a rich cargo. At last the new and 
safer way to the Far East had been found. Within 
twenty-five years the Portuguese built up a vast 
and profitable commerce with that part of the world. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. What articles do we now import from Asia? 

2. From what other lands do we get spices? jewels? fine woods? 

3. What countries supply the world with sugar at the present time? 

4. Draw a map showing the trade routes described in this chapter. 

5. Do the Turks still possess any land in Europe? 

6. Trace on the map the explorations of Prince Henry the Navigator. 

7. Show how the Portuguese at last found a sea route to the Far 
East. Is this route the one still used by the ships of Europe? 

8. Find out if the Portuguese still own land in Africa or Asia. 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Cheyney : The European Background of American History, Chapters 1-4. 
Fiske: The Discovery of America, I, Chapters 3, 4. 
Beazley : Prince Henry the Navigator. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Brooks: The Story of Marco Polo. 

Knox: The Travels of Marco Polo for Boys and Girls, 

Towle: Marco Polo — His Travels and Adventures. 



CHAPTER XIII 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 



Christopher Columbus and His Plan. — While the 
Portuguese were seeking a new route to the Far East 

by way of the Cape of 
Good Hope, Christopher 
Columbus was planning 
to do the same thing by 
sailing boldly westward 
across the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

Columbus was an Ital- 
ian, born at Genoa about 
the middle of the fifteenth 
century. When he was 
only fourteen years old 
he became a sailor. After 
a number of adventurous 
voyages he settled in 
Portugal, where he mar- 
ried the daughter of one 
of the famous sea captains who had served Prince 
Henry the Navigator. I 

For a time after his marriage Columbus made maps 
and charts for a living. He had always been fond of 
reading, and now he spent much time poring over the 
papers of his father-in-law, studjdng books on geo- 

(222) 




COLUMBUS ON THE DECK OF 
HIS FLAGSHIP 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 223 

graphical exploration, talking of their voyages with 
the old sailors about him, and dreaming of the vast 
unexplored sea to the westward. During these years 
Columbus came to believe that he could reach Asia 
by sailing west. Perhaps he also hoped to find new 
lands far out in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Columbus was not the first man to believe that the 
earth is round. Ever since the days of Greece and 
Rome a few of the wisest men had believed and taught 
this idea, but it had never been commonly accepted. 
It is the glory of Columbus that he was the first man 
with enough courage and fortitude to put his faith in 
this belief to the test. 

"What if wise men, as far back as Ptolemy 

Judged that the earth, hke an orange, was round, 
None of them ever said, come along, follow me. 
Sail to the West and the East will be found." 

As soon as Columbus had fully formed his plan for 
reaching Asia by a western route across the ocean he 
began to look for help to carry it out. He first appealed 
to the king of Portugal. Without saying anything 
to Columbus about it the king sent a ship to the west- 
ward to see what could be found. The sailors on this 
ship soon lost heart, and refusing to go farther, returned 
to Portugal. When Columbus found out what the 
king had done he left Lisbon and went to Spain. 

At this time Spain was ruled by King Ferdinand 
and Queen Isabella. For seven years Columbus 
followed them from place to place trying in vain to 
persuade them to aid him in working out his plan. 
Time and again the councils to which the Spanish 
rulers referred the proposal of Columbus reported that 



224 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

it was not practical. It is always difficult to get men 
to accept a new idea. Not many years ago people said 
that it was impossible to hear a man speak one thou- 
sand miles away, and yet these same people now 
talk by telephone from New York to San Francisco. 
At last, after years of anxious waiting and repeated 




From a painting by Brozik, in Metropolitan Museum, N. Y. 
COLUMBUS BEFORE THE SPANISH COUNCIL 



disappointments in Spain, Columbus started for France 
in the hope of interesting the king of that country in 
his scheme. He had not gone far, however, before 
he was overtaken by a messenger with the good news 
that Queen Isabella had at last decided to fit out an 
expedition for him. It was agreed that Columbus 
should be the governor of all the lands which he 
should discover, and that he should have a share of the 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 



225 



profits of all the trade with them. The seaport town 
of Palos was ordered to provide the ships and men for 
his voyage. At first it was very difficult to find any 
men who were willing to go upon what seemed to them 
such a reckless venture. Finally three small vessels, 




From a model in the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia 
THE FLAGSHIP OF COLUMBUS 
It was 128 feet long and was the largest of the explorer's three ships. 

the ^'Santa Maria/' ^'The Pinta/' and the ^^Nina/' 
were made ready and about ninety men were enlisted 
for the expedition. 

The First Voyage of Columbus. — In the early morn- 
ing of the 3rd of August, 1492, the httle fleet of 
Columbus sailed out of the harbor of Palos and headed 
for the unknown waters of the West. Columbus 

15 



226 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



stopped about a month at the Canary Islands to repair 
one of his ships, and on the 6th of September made the 
final start on the great voyage which was to result in 
the finding of America. 

For thirty-four days after leaving the Canaries 
Columbus steered boldly westward over an unknown 
sea. The weather was delightful, but the fears and 




THE DEPARTURE OF COLUMBUS 
The great explorer is going on board his ship to start on his first voyage. 

complaints of his men, who were ignorant and super- 
stitious, made it an anxious time for their great leader. 
Joaquin Miller, one of our American poets, has told 
us in a splendid poem how grandly Columbus cheered 
on his men. 

"They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: 

'This mad sea shows his teeth tonight. 
He curls his lip, he Hes in wait, 

With lifted teeth, as if to bite! 
Brave Admiral, say but one good word: 

What shall we do when hope is gone?' 
The words leapt like a leaping sword, 

'Sail on! Sail on! Sail on! and on!' " 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 227 

The real greatness of Columbus lies in his iron will, 
which held him steadfast to his purpose through many 
years, and in the midst of the greatest dangers. The 
same poet teaches us the lesson of his life in telling us 
what he found. 

''Then, worn and pale, he kept the deck, 

And peered through darkness. Ah, that night 
Of all dark nights! And then a speck — 

A Ught! A Hght! A light! A hght! 
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled. 

It grew to be Time's burst of dawn. 
He gained a world; he gave that world 

Its grandest lesson : 'On! sail on!'" 

Land was first sighted early in the morning of the 
12th of October, 1492. It was one of the small 
islands now known as the Bahamas. The same morn- 
ing Columbus landed, bearing the royal banner of 
Spain in his hand. With his men he knelt upon the 
shore and gave thanks to God for his mercy. Columbus 
then named the island San Salvador and took posses- 
sion of it in the names of the king and the queen of 
Spain. 

Soon a large crowd of the natives gathered about 
the explorers. Let Columbus tell us in his own words 
of what followed. He says, ^'In order to win the 
friendship and affection of that people, and because I 
was convinced that their conversion to our Holy 
Faith would be better promoted through love than 
through force, I presented some of them with red 
caps and some strings of glass beads which they placed 
around their necks, and with other trifles of insignifi- 
cant worth that delighted them and by which we have 



228 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

got a wonderful hold on their affections. They after- 
ward came to the boats of the vessels swimming, 
bringing us parrots, cotton thread in balls, and spears, 
and many other things, which they bartered for others 
we gave them such as glass beads and little bells. 
Finally they received everything and gave whatever 




From the painting "by Vanderhjn, Cajritol, Washington 
THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS 
The discoverer is taking possession of the new land in the names of the king and 
the n^ieen of Spain. 



they had with good will. But I thought them to be a 
very poor people." 

Columbus sailed among the islands of the Bahama 
group until October 28th, when he found the coast of 
Cuba. He explored slowly eastward along this coast 
and that of the neighboring island of Hayti, for nearly 
three months. On Christmas morning his flagship, 
the ^^ Santa Maria," was wrecked on the coast of Hayti. 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 



229 



This led him to leave forty of his men to plant the 
first European colony in America. With the two small 
vessels remaining he sailed for home, and after a 
stormy voyage entered the harbor of Palos on March 
15, 1493. 

Columbus now made his way to Barcelona, where 




From the ■painting by Cordero, Mexico 
THE RETURN OF COLUMBUS 
The explorer is showing Ferdinand and Isabella the Indians whom he brought to 
Spain on the return from his first voyage. 



Ferdinand and Isabella were at this time. '^From all 
the neighboring places the people gathered along the 
highway to see him and the Indians and the other 
things so novel that he had brought with him.^' The 
king and queen received him with the highest honors, 
listened to the story of his wandering, and saw with 
wonder the strange things and strange people that 



230 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

he had brought with him to prove that his story was 
true. 

The Finding of Strange Coasts. — In the famous 
voyage of 1492 Columbus only began the discovery of 
America. He was the first to say, '^ Come along, follow 
me.'' When this was once said there were many brave 
men to follow him. The real finding of America was 
the work of many men, who during the next two hun- 
dred years slowly and patiently traced the coast line 
of the New World and explored the interior of the vast 
continents that had been found. 

At first, no one realized that a New World had 
been discovered. Columbus believed that he had 
found a westward route to Asia, and that the islands 
which he had visited were off the eastern coast of that 
continent. He made three other voyages to what he 
thought was the coast of Asia or its outlying islands. 
On his second voyage he explored the coasts of Hayti 
and Cuba, discovered Jamaica, and began the work of 
Spanish settlement in the West Indies. The third time 
he sailed far to the south, touching the coast of South 
America near the mouth of the Orinoco River and 
tracing the coast line westward for some distance. 
On his last voyage he was determined to reach the 
mainland of Asia, if possible, so he sailed west from 
Cuba, only to find the coast of Central America, which 
he explored as far as the Isthmus of Panama. 

After Columbus led the way, other explorers, 
encouraged by his example, sought the westward 
route to Asia. In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian in the 
service of the king of England, set sail with one small 
ship and eighteen men and found the mainland of 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 



231 




232 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



-^;»75'M 



North America, somewhere upon the eastern coast of 
Canada. He thought he had reached Cathay or China. 
It is probable that Cabot made a second voyage to the 
same region the following year, but very little is known 
about it. The work of John Cabot is important 
because it gave the king of England a claim to the 
eastern coast of North America by right of discovery. 
In the meantime several Spanish captains were 

exploring the 
northern and east- 
ern coasts of South 
America. When 
it was noticed that 
this strange new 
land extended 
much farther south 
than Asia, the ex- 
plorers began to 
call it a ''New 
World,'' as a con- 
tinent southeast of Asia and possibly connected with 
it. Soon they began to look for a strait through which 
they might find their way to the land of spices, which 
they felt sure was near at hand. 

Americus Vespucius, a native of Florence in Italy, 
made several voyages to these strange lands beyond 
the Atlantic. He saw much of the coast of South 
America and it is possible that he helped explore the 
coast line of the Gulf of Mexico. At any rate, he 
wrote a very interesting story of his travels, of the 
countries he had visited and of the wonders that he 
had seen. This account was widely read, and falling 




AN EARLY MAP OF AMERICA 
This map is adapted from a globe made by Finaeus 
in 1531. It shows how Europeans for a time thought 
that South America was a new continent joined to 
Asia by the isthmus of Panama. 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 



233 



into the hands of a German geographer, it led him to 
suggest that this new part of the world be called ^'The 
land of Americus or America.'' For a while this name 
was applied only to South America, but in time it 
came to be given to both continents of the western 
hemisphere. 

How it was Proved that America is not Asia. — In 
1513 Balboa, a Spaniard, who was exploring in the 
interior of the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama, saw from a mountain top 
a great sea spread out before 
him. After struggling for 
four days through a tropical 
jungle Balboa reached the sea- 
shore. Wading into the water, 
with the royal banner in his 
hand, he took possession of 
the new sea in the name of 
his master, the king of Spain. 
As this sea was south of the 
isthmus which he had just crossed Balboa called it the 
South Sea. This discovery strengthened the growing 
belief that South America was really a new continent. 

It remained for Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese 
sailor in the service of the Spanish king, to prove 
beyond any doubt that the New World was not Asia. 
By the most wonderful voyage of exploration that the 
world has ever seen Magellan made it clear that the 
new continent was separated from Cathay and the 
East Indies by the greatest ocean upon the globe. 

In his early life Magellan had visited the East Indies 
by way of the Cape of Good Hope. After his return to 




BALBOA TAKING POSSESSION 
OF THE SOUTH SEA 



234 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Portugal it occurred to him that if a passage could be 
found from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea the 
rich spice islands of the Far East could be reached by a 
westward route. He believed that he could find such 
a passage. He laid his plan before the king of Portugal, 
but the king would have nothing to do with it. 
Magellan then left Portugal and offered his services 
to the king of Spain. 

Just at this time the Spaniards had a special reason 
for wishing to find such a route as Magellan suggested. 
Shortly after the first voyage of 
Columbus, Spain and Portugal had 
made a treaty with the approval of 
the pope, by which it was agreed 
that all new lands lying east of a 
meridian three hundred and seventy 
FERDINAND leagues west of the Cape Verde 
Islands should belong to Portugal, 
and all lands west of this meridian to Spain. Thus 
far Portugal had much the better of this bargain. 
She was rapidly developing a rich trade with the East 
Indies, while, as yet, Spain had found little of value 
in the new lands to the west. But if the Spaniards 
could reach the East Indies by sailing westward, as 
Magellan said, then they could claim at least a part 
of the trade of that region. 

For this reason the king of Spain listened to the plan 
of Magellan, and gave him five ships with which to 
carry it out. With this httle fleet he crossed the 
Atlantic to South America and began to explore the 
coast to the southward, ever on the lookout for an 
opening into the South Sea. Winter compelled 




HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 



235 



Magellan to stop for several months upon the coast 
of Patagonia. During this halt a serious mutiny 
broke out among his men, but he put it down with a 
strong hand. 

With the earliest signs of spring Magellan once more 
started upon his quest. He soon found the strait 
which now bears his name, through which for five 
weeks he cautiously worked his way. Presently it 
became clear that the long-sought 
passage had been found. The pro- 
visions were running short, and the 
men urged their leader to go back to 
Spain. Magellan rephed that he 
would go on and finish his work ''if 
he had to eat the leather off the 
ship's yards.'' 

In this spirit Magellan first sailed 
northward and then boldly turned 
to the west to cross the greatest 
of oceans, which he named Pacific, 
because he found it so free from 
storms. The days grew to be weeks, and the weeks 
lengthened into months, and still the stout-hearted 
captain held to his course. The food gave out, and 
the men did eat the leather off the ship's rigging, 
first soaking it in the ocean and then roasting it over 

a fire. 

Just as starvation seemed certain they came to an 
island upon which they found fruit, vegetables, and 
game. Twelve days later they reached the islands 
which were later called the Philippines. Upon one of 
these islands Magellan was killed by the natives in 




MONUMENT TO 

MAGELLAN 

This monument marks 

the spot in the Philippine 

Islands where Magellan 

was killed. 



236 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

April, 1521. But one of his ships, the httle ''Victoria/' 
found its way to the Spice Islands, thence across the 
Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and so 
home to Spain. 

This voyage was the first circumnavigation of the 
globe. Magellan had proved, as the wisest men had 
long believed, that the earth was round. He had 
proved too that America was a New World, separated 
from the Old World and its civilization by two great 
oceans. 

The New World. — It was a wonderful New World 
which had been discovered, a world rich in resources 
of almost every kind, and in it many of the people 
of Europe were destined to find better homes than they 
had ever known in the Old World. 

If you will study this map of the western hemisphere 
you will notice that America extends from the frozen 
north across the wide temperate zone, in which the 
United States is located, includes the vast tropical 
regions of the West Indies, Mexico, and Central and 
South America, has a second rich temperate section 
in the far south, and ends amid the cold and storms 
of Cape Horn. South America alone is nearly twice 
the size of Europe, and North America is larger still. 

In this New World, and in particular in that part of 
it where we now find the United States, nature had 
made every provision for the wants of civilized men. 
A fertile soil only waited to be cultivated in order to 
bring forth abundant harvests. Splendid forests of 
oak and pine, with many other kinds of useful trees, 
gave promise of shelter and fuel. Deer, buffalo, wild 
turkey, and other game meant food for the early 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 



237 



settlers. The beaver, the mink, and the fox offered a 
rich supply of fur. The lakes and rivers teemed with 
fish, the waters along the Atlantic coast were alive 




University Museum, PMladelpMa 
A GROUP OF SIOUX INDIANS 
These Indians are dressed to have their pictures taken, but their faces are typical 
of the red men. 



238 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

with cod, mackerel, and herring, and the salmon was 
found in uncounted numbers on the Pacific coast. 

The mountains of the East were ribbed with iron 
and underlaid with coal. In those of the far West 
there were rich stores of silver and gold. Copper, 
lead, and salt were found in many places. The smaller 




American Museum of Natural History, N. Y 
INDIAN UTENSILS, TOOLS, AND WEAPONS 



rivers furnished water power to drive the wheels of 
mills, and the larger rivers were roads along which 
settlers and traders might reach the interior of the 
country. In the main, the climate was healthful and 
well suited to people from Europe. This wealth of 
natural resources has played a very great part in the 
making of our history. 

The Indians. — Columbus called the people whom he 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 



239 



found on his first voyage Indians, because he thought 
that he had reached the East Indies. There were 
Indians in nearly every part of the New World, although 
nowhere was their number very large. They were 
often called the Red Men, because of their copper 
color. They were finely formed people, with high 
cheek bones and 
straight black hair. 

When the white 
men first saw them 
the Indians had the 
arts of the Stone Age, 
as the people of 
Europe had had many 
thousands of years 
earlier. Some of the 
red men were savages 
who wandered from 
place to place, living 
upon such game and 
fish as they could 
catch. Other tribes, 
which were a'i little 
more advanced, culti- 
vated the soil and raised squashes, beans, and corn. 
They had no domestic animals except the dog. Their 
arrows were tipped with flint, and such other weapons 
and tools as they possessed were made of polished 
stone. They lived in tents or wigwams covered with 
bark or skins. The Indians were a fierce and warlike 
race, and the various tribes often fought with each 
other. 




Copyright Underwood & Underwood 
A FORT OF THE PERUVIANS 
Notice with what skill these American In- 
dians fitted great blocks of stone together. 



240 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

The Indians in Mexico and Peru were much farther 
advanced toward civilization than the other tribes in 
the New World. They lived a settled life, raised great 
crops of corn and potatoes, and the natives of Peru 
kept large flocks of llamas and alpacas. The 
Peruvians, in particular, built large buildings and fine 




University Museum, Pliila. 
A CASTLE OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS 
This ruin is found in Yucatan. 

roads. Magnificent ruins of these buildings may be 
seen in Peru at the present time. Both Mexico and 
Peru were rich in gold and silver and we shall see that 
it was this fact which led to their early conquest by 
the Spaniards. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. What do you most admire in Columbus? Wliy? 

2. Why did Columbus find it so difficult to secure aid for his first 
voyage? 

. 3. Lowell, Tennyson, and Sidney Lanier have written great poems 
about Columbus. Find and read them. 

4. Would it have made any difference in the history of the New 
World if it had been named for Columbus? 



HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 241 

5. Trace upon a map the route of Magellan's great voyage. 

6. If possible, read the fine description of Magellan's voyage in John 
Fiske's ''Discovery of America." 

7. In what ways are North and South America aUke? In what 
respects do they differ? 

8. What do the Indian relics that you have seen tell you about the 
life of the Indians? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Fiske: The Discovery of America. 

Bourne: Spain in America, Chapters I-IX. 

Channing: History of the United States, 1, Chapters I, II. 

Adams: Christopher Columbus. 

Farrand: The Basis of American History. 

Brigham: Geographic Influences in American History. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Brooks: The True Story of Christopher Columbus. 

Lawler: Columbus and Magellan. 

Gordy: American Leaders and Heroes, American Explorers. 

Seelye: The Story of Columbus. 

Shaw: Discoverers and Explorers. 

McMurry: Pioneers on Land and Sea. 

Starr: American Indians. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HOW THE SPANIARDS WON A GREAT EMPIRE IN 

AMERICA 

The Settlement of the West Indies. — In less than 
fifty years after the fnst voyage of Columbus the 
Spaniards had built a vast empire in America. They 
did this long before any other European nation had 
made a single settlement in the New World. 

It will be remembered that Columbus left forty 
men upon the island of Hayti when he was first there 
in 1492. The next year, when he returned, he brought 
with him fifteen hundred men, laborers, artisans, 
and soldiers, besides missionaries to convert the 
Indians. These first Spanish settlers brought many 
things to help them live as they had lived in their 
old homes: horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry; 
wheat, barley, and all kinds of garden seeds; and 
what was to be more important than any of these 
in the history of the West Indies, the sugar cane. 

Every year more settlers came and soon there were 
several Spanish towns in Hayti and Cuba, and a 
Httle later in Porto Rico and Jamaica. At first, 
these settlements did not prosper. The chmate 
was unhealthful, and there was much sickness and 
death. Then the colonists were thirsty for gold, 
and spent their time in searching for it instead of in 
clearing the land and building permanent homes. 

(242) 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 243 

When the Spaniards first came to the West Indies 
there were many Indians in the islands. The colonists 
treated these natives with great cruelty, selhng some 
of them into slavery in Spain, and forcing the others 
to work upon the plantations and in the mines of 
Cuba and Hayti. The Indians were a wild free race, 
unused to the hard work which the Spaniards made 
them do. In vain they fought for their freedom against 
the better armed white men. These wars, and the 
brutal treatment and heavy toil of those who were 
enslaved, soon threatened to destroy all the Indians 
on the islands. 

The best man among the early Spanish settlers 
in the West Indies was a priest named Las Casas. 
The heart of this good man was touched by the awful 
sufferings of the poor Indians. He began by giving 
up his own slaves. Then he commenced to preach 
to the people that their souls were in danger as long 
as they kept the Indians in bondage. But the people 
would not listen to him, and Las Casas went to Spain 
to complain to the king. At first he could accomplish 
nothing, but in the end he succeeded in getting new 
laws which greatly lessened the hardships of the few 
Indians who survived. 

But even Las Casas could not persuade the Spanish 
government to give the Indians their freedom. The 
mines must be worked, and somewhere the laborers 
must be found to work them. Presently negro slaves 
began to be brought to take the place of the rapidly 
disappearing Indians. In this way African slavery 
and the African slave trade were first introduced 
into the New World. 



244 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



While these early Spanish settlements were growing 
up in the West Indies, bold and restless Spanish cap- 
tains were exploring the coast of the neighboring 
mainland. When stories of the wealth of Mexico 
and Peru began to be told in the settlements on the 
islands the gold seekers abandoned them and went 
to conquer the richer lands to the westward. So 




University Museum, PMla. 
A TEMPLE-PALACE OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS 
Notice the elaborate decoration of the walls. These ruins are found in Yucatan. 

for many years the Spanish colonies in Cuba and 
Hayti grew very slowly. 

How Cortes Conquered Mexico. — The first great 
step in the winning of a Spanish empire upon the 
mainland of America w^as the conquest of Mexico. 
When the captains who had been sent to explore 
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico came back with stories 
of a people who Uved in cities in which there were 
paved streets, great temples, and most tempting of 
all, an abundance of gold, there was intense excite- 
ment among the Spaniards in the West Indian colonies. 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 245 




From a painting by Peale, in In- 
dependence Hall, Phila. 

CORTES 



The governor of Cuba at once decided to make a 
settlement in the new rich land in the west. 

Hernando Cortes, a young soldier who had taken 
an active part in the conquest of Cuba, was appointed 
to lead the first expedition into 
Mexico. A wiser choice it would 
have been hard to make. Cortes 
was a born leader of men, bold 
and brave as a hon, yet shrewd 
and wise in counsel. Early in 
1519 he reached the coast of 
Mexico with eleven ships and 
about six hundred men. 

Cortes soon discovered that 
Mexico was inhabited by many 
tribes of fierce and warlike Indi- 
ans. After establishing the town of Vera Cruz upon 
the coast, he resolved to march upon the great Indian 
capital, the City of Mexico, of whose wealth in gold 
and jewels he had heard the most wonderful stories. 
Before starting upon this dangerous march Cortes sunk 

all his ships. There 
was now no escape 
for his men. They 
must win or perish. 
With his little 
handful of men Cor- 
tes began the invasion of an unknown land swarming 
with powerful and savage foes. Again and again the 
Spaniards had to fight for their lives. They were far 
better armed than the Indians, who were terrified at 
the sound of the cannon which Cortes had with him, 




A CANNON OF CORTES' TIME 



246 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

and almost as badly frightened at the sight of the 
horses, the hke of which they had never seen before. 

Cortes soon learned that the Aztecs, as the Indians 
of the City of Mexico were called, were hated by the 
other tribes, with whom they were often at war. He 
made a wise use of this knowledge. When the strongest 
tribe that he encountered between Vera Cruz and the 
City of Mexico found out that the Spaniards were 
marching against the enemies they feared and hated, 
they joined forces with them, and thus the little army 
of Cortes was strengthened by several thousand 
Indian allies. 

As Cortes and his men drew near the Aztec capital, 
they were amazed at the sight which they beheld. 
Opening before them was a beautiful valley hemmed 
in by lofty mountains. A large lake lay in the 
middle of this valley, and upon an island in this 
lake there stood a great city. Three causeways, as 
the roads raised above the level of the water were 
called, each four or five miles long and twenty or 
thirty feet wide, connected this island with the shores 
of the lake. 

One of the soldiers of Cortes tells us of the astonish- 
ment and wonder of the Spaniards. He says, ^^When 
we beheld so many cities and towns rising up from the 
water, and other populous places situated on the 
terra Urma (solid earth), and that causeway, straight 
as a level which went into Mexico, we remained 
astonished, and said one to another that it appeared 
like the enchanted castles which they tell of in the 
book of Amadis, by reason of the great towers, temples, 
and edifices, which there were in the water, and all 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 247 

of them work of masonry. Some of our soldiers 
asked if this that they saw was not a thing in a dream.'' 

The soldiers might well think that they were dream- 
ing as they marched along the great causeway across 
the lake and entered a city of sixty thousand people. 
Though they did not understand it, they really were 
marching back through many thousand years of the 
growth of civilization into a life not unlike that of 
early Egypt or Babylonia. The 
Aztecs lived in great houses, each 
large enough to shelter hundreds of 
people. There were no stores in the 
city, but the Spaniards found two 
market places where the people met 
to trade. In the center of the city 
there was a great tower and upon montezuma 
the top of this tower there stood an 
altar, where captives were killed to please the bloody 
gods whom the Indians worshipped. 

Cortes and his men were received with great cere- 
mony by Montezuma, the war chief of the Aztecs, 
and lodged in a house large enough to shelter them 
all. Suspecting that the Indians were getting ready 
to attack him, Cortes seized Montezuma and kept 
him a prisoner. The Indians hesitated to begin a war 
while their great chief was in the hands of the enemy 
and in this way a whole winter passed. 

Early in the spring the news came that a Spanish 
force of twelve hundred men, sent by the governor 
of Cuba to arrest Cortes for disobedience to his orders, 
had landed at Vera Cruz. Cortes acted promptly. 
Leaving a few men in the City of Mexico, he hurried 




248 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

to the coast with most of his force, defeated and cap- 
tured the Spanish leader who had come to arrest him, 
and told the soldiers such stories of the wonders and 
the wealth of Mexico that they eagerly enlisted in 
his service. 

Cortes now returned to the Mexican capital with 



.-/f^il^i^v^ 




THE SPANIARDS STORMING THE CITY OF MEXICO 



a much larger force than he had before. He was just 
in time. The men whom he had left in the city were 
penned in their house by hostile Indians. The 
Indians let Cortes march into the city again, but he 
soon found that he had really entered a trap in which 
his small army was surrounded by thousands of 
warriors. 

When the attack began Cortes made his prisoner, 
Montezuma, go out and command the Indians to 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 249 



stop fighting, but the Indians would not listen to 
their former chief. They threw stones at Montezuma, 
and injured him so badly that he soon died. Cortes 
now saw that his only hope was in cutting his way 
out of the city. He attempted this the very night 
that Montezuma died. The Spaniards marched 
quietly through the deserted streets, but when they 
were on the great causeway across the lake the Indians 




From an old print 



THE CITY OF MEXICO 

This is the city which Cortes and his men built upon the ruins of the Indian town. 

came swarming about them in canoes and attacked 
them with great fury. Before the end of that terrible 
night two-thirds of the Spaniards were slain. 

With the remnant of his force Cortes at last made 
his escape, and a few days later he defeated the Indians 
who pursued him. Cortes was not disheartened 
by the awful disaster which had overtaken him. 
He secured new supplies, raised a large force of Indians 
who were hostile to the Aztecs, and returned to the 
attack. After a siege lasting seventy-three days, 
in which there was hard fighting every day, he cap- 



250 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

tured the City of Mexico, and upon the ruins of the 
Indian town the conquerors built a Spanish city. 

After the fall of the City of Mexico the Spanish 
conquest of the country went on rapidly. Expedi- 
tions were sent south to explore and conquer Central 
America and west to the Gulf of California. Daring 
explorers penetrated the unknown regions to the 
north. Before the close of the sixteenth century 
there was a Spanish settlement at 
Santa Fe, upon the banks of the 
Rio Grande in New Mexico. 

The Conquest of Peru. — While 
Cortes was conquering Mexico 
other Spaniards were gaining a 
foothold on the Isthmus of Panama 
^^, and along the northern coast of 
South America. From the first, 
the settlers at Panama began to 

FRANCISCO PIZARRO , , . ^ i i p , , i 

hear stories of a land far to the 
southward called Peru, which was rich in silver and 
gold. These reports led many bold spirits to explore 
in that direction. 

Among these daring men Francisco Pizarro was 
easily first. He was destined to become the greatest 
of the Spanish conquerors, and to win for Spain the 
richest of her provinces. In his earlier expeditions 
upon the western coast of South America Pizarro 
found little except suffering and hardship. But no 
danger or difficulty was great enough to break his 
iron will. On one occasion a ship arrived from Panama 
with orders to bring back Pizarro and all his men. 
The men who were suffering from famine and disease 




THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 251 



were eager to go home. But Pizarro drew a line in 
the sand with the point of his sword, and looking 
his men in the face, said: ^^ Comrades and friends, 
on that side are death, hardship, starvation, naked- 
ness, storms; on this side is comfort. From this 
side you go to Panama to be poor; from that side 
to Peru to be rich. Let each choose that which he 
thinks best.'^ As he 
spoke, Pizarro stepped 
across the line to the 
south, and sixteen of his 
men followed him. 

With these gallant men 
and with many others 
who later came to join 
him, Pizarro continued 
his work. At last he 
reached the coast of Peru 
and learned that the 
stories told of its wealth 
were true. The Peru- 
vians were Indians who 
had made considerable progress toward civilization. 
They raised great crops of corn and potatoes. They 
kept llamas as beasts of burden, and alpacas from 
whose wool they made the finest cloth. They had 
tools and weapons of bronze, built fine roads and 
great stone buildings, and had so much gold that they 
made their common utensils, like cups and bowls, of it. 

There were several tribes of Indians in Peru, but the 
Incas were the most important and their great chief 
was called the Inca. Pizarro captured the Inca, 




LLAMAS 

These animals are still used as beasts 
of burden by the Peruvians. 



252 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

very much as Cortes had taken Montezuma^ and 
attacked and scattered his followers. Without their 
war chief the Indians did not know what to do, and 
the Spaniards had little difficulty in getting control 
of their country. The captive Inca was confined 
in a room twenty-two feet long and seventeen feet 
wide. One day he drew a mark upon the wall as 
high as he could reach and offered to buy his freedom 
by filling the room as high as this mark with gold. 
His captors eagerly accepted his offer and soon gold 
vases and ornaments began to be brought in vast 
quantities. In this way Pizarro and his men won 
an enormous treasure. But they were afraid to release 
the Inca and in the end they treacherously killed him. 

Soon the Spanish conquerors of Peru fell to fighting 
among themselves and for years there was a great 
deal of strife among them. Pizarro, when an old 
man, was murdered by some of his own followers. 
Quarrelsome and gold-hungry as these Spaniards 
were, they were also brave and daring, and they 
continued their conquests southward into Chile and 
northward into Colombia and Venezuela. The Indians 
were brought under their rule, cities were founded, 
and Spanish institutions were planted in all of South 
America except Brazil, which was colonized by the 
Portuguese. By the middle of the sixteenth century 
the Spaniards had won a great empire which included 
the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and the 
greater part of South America. 

The First Spaniards on the Coast of the United 
States. — The success of the Spaniards in winning 
wealth in Mexico and Peru so excited their fancy 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 253 

that they began to dream of rich countries to the 
north. They were not the men to dream of gold 
without trying to find it. Even before the days of 
Cortes, Ponce de Leon had visited the coast of Florida 
and named the country. 

The first important expedition toward the north, 
undertaken by the Spaniards in the hope of winning 
gold and glory, was led by Narvaez. Landing on 
the shore of Florida, he advanced into the forests 
of an unknown land with three hundred men. The 
sufferings of these explorers were terrible. Famine, 
sickness, and constant Indian attacks steadily reduced 
their numbers. Nowhere could they find a trace 
of the gold they came to seek. At last they made 
their way back to the northern shore of the Gulf of 
Mexico. Here they built boats and put to sea, but 
a storm ended what famine and disease had begun. 
Narvaez perished, and only four of his followers, 
after years of wandering, reached the Spanish settle- 
ments in Mexico. 

The Story of De Soto.— A second expedition to 
the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico was led by 
Hernando De Soto, a companion of Pizarro in the 
conquest of Peru. With six hundred and twenty 
picked men, who like himself were burning with 
ambition and the hope of plunder, De Soto landed 
on the coast of Florida. For three years they wandered 
through the forests and swamps of our southern 
states, fighting Indians but never finding the wealth 
they sought. At last they found a great river, the 
Mississippi, and crossed it. 

One of De Soto's men, who wrote an account of 






254 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

their wanderings, tells us how they crossed the 

Mississippi. He says, ''In thirty days space, while 

the governor remained there, they made four barges, 

in three of which he commanded twelve horsemen 

to enter (in each of them four), in a morning, three 

hours before day — men whom he trusted would land 

in despite of the Indians, and make sure of the passage, 

or die; and some footmen, being crossbow-men, 

h went with them, 

I ^^^;^ and rowers to set 

_^ '^ _^^ ; them on the other 

side. And in the 
other barge he com- 
manded John de 
Guzman to pass 
with the footmen. 
And, because the 
stream was swift, 
they went a quarter of a league up the river, along 
the bank, and, crossing over, fell down with the 
stream, and landed right over against the camps. 

''Two stones'-cast before they came to land, the 
horsemen went out of the barges on horseback to a 
sandy plot of very hard and clear ground, where all 
of them landed without any resistance. As soon 
as those that passed first were on land on the other 
side, the barges returned to the place where the 
governor was; and, within two hours after sun-rising, 
all the people were over. The river was almost half 
a league broad. If a man stood still on the other side, 
it could not be discerned whether he were a man or no. 
-Tha river was of great depth and of a strong current. 




THE BURIAL OF DE SOTO 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 255 

The river was always muddy. There came down the 
river continually many trees and timber, which the 
force of the water and stream brought down. There 
was great store of fish in it, of sundry sorts, and most 
of it differing from the fresh water fish of Spain." 

After discovering the Mississippi River, De Soto 
and his men roamed for months in the region west 
of it. Finally, giving up hope of finding gold, they 
returned to the Mississippi. Here De Soto died and 
was buried in the great river which he had found, 
where to this day — 

"Deep buried in the ooze of centuries, 

Wrapped in the mighty river's winding sheet, 
That which the world once called De Soto lies 
So sepulchred, steel cased from head to feet." 

The survivors now built boats and after terrible 
suffering reached Mexico. 

The Explorations of Coronado.^ — The story told 
by the survivors of Narvaez' ill-fated expedition, 
and the behef in an old legend that there were seven 
rich cities somewhere toward the north, led the 
governor of Mexico to send a monk named Fray 
Marcos to explore in that direction. Fray Marcos 
caught a distant glimpse of the pueblos of New Mexico, 
and believed that he had seen the fabled cities. So 
the next year, at the very time that De Soto was 
wandering over the region north of the Gulf of Mexico, 
Coronado started from Mexico with eleven hundred 
men to conquer these cities. After he discovered 
that the pueblos of New Mexico were not the rich 
cities that he hoped to find, but only Indian villages, 



256 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

he went on to the northeast, probably as far as the 
plains of the present state of Kansas. 

One of the soldiers with Coronado wrote, ^'I have 
not seen a better country in all our Spain. It is 
made up of plains with very fine rivers and streams, 
which made me sure that it will be very fruitful in 
all sorts of products. After we began to enter the 
plains we found cattle (buffalo) in great numbers. 
We found Indians among the cattle. These Indians 
live without houses, but have some sets of poles which 
they carry with them to make something like huts in 
the places where they stop. They tie these poles 
together at the top and stick the bottoms in the 
ground, covering them with cowskins. From what 
was learned of these Indians, all their human needs 
are supplied by these cattle, for they are fed and 
clothed and shod from these. They are a people 
who go around here and there, wherever seems to 
them best.'^ 

The importance of all these exploring expeditions 
grows out of the fact that upon them the Spaniards 
based their claim to all the southern and south- 
western part of what is now the United States. Begin- 
ning at St. Augustine in Florida, in 1565, they slowly 
made this claim good by actual settlement. 

Spanish America. — By 1550 the Spaniards had 
won an American empire which included the West 
Indies, Mexico, Central America, and nearly all of 
South America except Brazil which belonged to 
Portugal. For nearly three hundred years the king 
of Spain was the ruler of this vast region. The Ameri- 
can countries between the United States and Cape 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 257 




America)! Museum of Xatziral nWnry, X. Y, 

LIFE IN AN INDIAN PUEBLO 

A pueblo is a many-roomed house — the home of a whole community of Indians in 

our Spanish southwest. When it is built upon the side or top of a cliff it is called a 

cliff-dwelling. Pueblos are built of stone or sun-dried brick. In this picture the 

women of a pueblo are busy at their household work. What are they doing? 




American Museum of Natural History, N. Y. 
INDIAN TEPEES 
This series of pictures shows the process of erecting the tepees or wigwams of the 
Indians whom the Spaniards found on the great plains of the West. The poles were 
stuck in the ground, fastened together at the top, and then covered with skina. 

17 



258 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Horn no longer belong to Spain, but their people are 
still Spanish in customs, institutions, and language. 

A very large part of the people in the Latin American 
countries, as they are often called, are the descendants 
of the Indians whom the Spaniards found in the lands 
which they conquered. The English settlers in our 
own country either killed or drove 
away the Indians who lived near 
them. The Spaniards conquered 
the Indians, taught them some of 
the simpler features of their own 
civilization, and 
forced them to 




A^urican Museum of Natural lUstory, X. Y. 
A NAVAJO HOME IN THE SPANISH SOUTHWEST 
This gives a glimpse of the home of the Indians who came under Spanish 
influences. It shows the natives working at various occupations. 

labor on the plantations and in the mines of their 
masters. As we have seen, most of the Indians in the 
West Indies soon perished under this harsh treatment 
and were replaced by negro slaves brought from 
Africa. Many negroes were also taken to Mexico 
and to the Spanish colonies in South America. 

Slavery no longer exists anywhere on the American 
continent, but in all Latin American countries the 
mass of the people, who are of Indian or negro or 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 



259 



mixed descent, are very poor, and nearly all the 
property belongs to the descendants of the Spanish 
conquerors or to other foreigners who have settled 
in those countries more recently. 

The people of the great Spanish American empire 
Uved by farming or grazing or by working in the 
rich mines of Mexico and Peru. Corn and potatoes 
were natives of Amer- 
ica, and the common 
European grains, 
fruits, and vegetables 
were early introduced. 
Sugar cane soon be- 
came the leading crop 
in the West Indies. 
Our common domestic 
animals were not 
found in America; but 
horses and cattle, 
sheep and swine were 
brought over by the 
earliest Spanish set- 
tlers, and stock raising soon became a profitable busi- 
ness in Latin America. The gold and silver from her 
American provinces made Spain for a time the richest 
and most powerful country in Europe. 

The Spanish colonists were governed by officials 
sent from Spain. Unlike the English settlers north 
of them, they did not learn how to govern themselves 
by practice. As a consequence of this lack of experi- 
ence in managing their own political affairs, and of 
the ignorance of the mass of their people, many of 




AN OLD SPANISH MISSION AT 
SAN GABRIEL, CALIFORNIA 



260 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



the Latin American countries have not succeeded 
very well in setting up good governments since they 
shook off the rule of Spain. 

The Spanish conquerors and settlers in Latin America 
did much to introduce the civilization of their home 
land. They established schools and universities, 
brought over printing presses from Spain, built 

churches, and estab- 
lished many mission 
stations to teach the 
Christian faith to the 
Indians. But they 
did not succeed in 
bringing the Indians 
and mixed races 
whom they ruled up 
to their own level in 
culture. 

For a long time the 
people of the United States had Uttle interest in the 
Spanish lands south of us. But we are learning more 
about them every year now, and are doing more 
business with their people. The Panama Canal has 
brought us into closer touch than ever before with 
all the Latin American countries. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. What kind of men were the Spanish settlers and conquerors in 
America? 

2. Do you admire Cortes? Why? 

3. Was the conquest of Mexico an advantage or a disadvantage to 
that country? Why? 

4. Wallace's "The Fair God" is a fine story of the conquest of 
Mexico. You would enjoy reading it. 






lllE PAXA^IA CAXAL 
The U. S. Battleship "Ohio" is passing through 
one of the locks. 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 261 

5. There are many interesting pictures of the ruins of ancient Peru 
in the National Geographic Magazine for April, 1913. Try to find 
it in your school hbrary or in the pubhc library of your town. 

6. Trace upon the map the route of De Soto's expedition. Of 
Coronado's expedition. 

7. When and how did the Spanish lose their great empire in America? 

8. Why has the Panama Canal brought us into closer touch with the 
Latin American countries? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

John Fiske: The Discovery of America, II. 

Bourne: Spain in America. 

Channing: History of the United States, 1, Chapter III. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Tappan: American Hero Stories. 

Gordy: Stories of American Explorers. 

Shaw: Discoverers and Explorers. 

Mitchell: Cortes, Montezwna, and Mexico. 

McMurry: Pioneers on Land and Sea. 

King : De Soto and his Men in the Land of Florida. 

Winterburn: The Spanish in the Southwest. 

Lummis: Spanish Pioneers. 



CHAPTER XV 

OPENING THE WAY FOR ENGLISH SETTLEMENT 
IN AMERICA 




England and Spain in the Sixteenth Century. — 

While Spain was taking possession of a large part 

of the New World, between 1500 and 1550, England 

was doing almost nothing in America. It is true 

that John Cabot visited the 

coast of North America in 1497, 

but England was not yet ready 

j^'m^i'^ 'm^' ^ ^^ follow up his work. Her time 

J^< mK^ /^"*Jm came in the second half of the 

sixteenth century, the glorious 

age of Queen Elizabeth. Under 

^^Good Queen Bess," as they 

called her, the English sailors 

were as daring in adventure and 

as eager in their search for 

gold as the Spaniards had been fifty years before. 

In the days of Queen Elizabeth Englishmen and 

Spaniards came to be very bitter enemies. This 

feeling led them into a great war with each other, 

a war which is of vital importance in the history of 

the United States because it determined the destiny 

of our country. The rivalry between England and 

Spain which brought on this great struggle grew out 

of two important causes. The first of these causes 

(262) 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 
The "Good Queen Bess' 
of the English. 



OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 263 

was religious hatred. The first half of the sixteenth 
century, the time when Spain was winning her empire 
in America, was the age of the Protestant Reforma- 
tion. By the middle of the century most of the 
people in northern Europe had become Protestants 
while the people of southern Europe remained true 
to the Catholic faith. The second half of the century 
was a time of religious warfare between the two great 
divisions of the Christian Church. Spain was the 
main defender of the Catholic cause, 
while England came to be looked 
upon as the champion of the Prot- 
estant side. 

In the sixteenth century very few 
people had learned to tolerate religious 
opinions which differed from their 
own. In this respect there is little ^^^ spa in *^^ 
to choose between the two sides. EiTJlbethT^^ °^ ^"^^"^ 
Catholics were persecuted by Queen 
Elizabeth in England, while in Spain the persecution 
of Protestants by her great rival, Philip the Second, 
was so severe that it crushed out Protestantism in 
that country. Most of the English sailors and mer- 
chants were ardent Protestants, and the stories of per- 
secution in Spain, and especially of the sufferings of 
the Protestant English sailors caught in that country, 
stirred in them a hot wrath against Spain and every- 
thing Spanish. This feeling led them to attack and 
plunder the Spaniards at every opportunity. These 
attacks and their dislike of heretics, as they called the 
Protestants, led the Spaniards to hate the English 
quite as bitterly as the English hated them, 




264 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



Just at this time the people of the Netherlands, 
who had been ruled by the Spanish king for some 
time, rebelled against his authority. Under their 
famous leader, William the Silent, the Dutch — as 
the people of the Netherlands are called — were making 
a great fight for their freedom. The Dutch were 
Protestants, and religious persecution by the Catholic 
Spaniards had been one of the causes of their revolt. 
The Protestants in England sympathized with the 
Dutch, and many a gallant young 
Englishman ran away from home to 
join the army of William the Silent. 
Naturally, this made the Spaniards 
hate the English more bitterly than 
ever. 

The second cause of the great 
contest between England and Spain 
in the time of Queen Elizabeth and 
Philip the Second was commercial 
rivalry. When Elizabeth came to 
the throne English commerce was beginning to grow 
rapidly. Englishmen were looking everywhere for 
opportunities to trade. They were constantly hearing 
marvelous stories of the treasure to be had in the 
Spanish colonies in America. They coveted' this wealth 
and did everything in their power to get a share of 
it. The Spaniards wanted to keep all the American i 
trade for themselves, and were especially anxious to 
keep the heretic Englishmen out of their colonies. 

But it has always been difficult to keep the English 
out of any part of the world where trade is to be won, 
and the Spaniards did not succeed in doing so in this 




WILLIAM THE 

SILENT 
The leader of the 
Dutch in their famous 
struggle for freedom. 



OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 265 

instance. The trouble began in this way. An EngHsh 
sailor, John Hawkins by name, learning that there 
was a demand for slaves to work on the plantations 
and in the mines of Spanish America, made several 
voyages to the West Indies and South America with 
cargoes of negroes that he had bought or stolen in 
Africa. He found a ready market for these negroes 
in the Spanish colonies. 

The Spanish government objected to this English 
slave trading, not because of any dislike for slavery, 
but, as we have just seen, because it wanted to keep 
the English out of America and retain all the American 
trade in its own hands. In spite of warnings Hawkins 
persisted in going to the Spanish colonies, and at last 
the king of Spain sent a fleet to stop him. This 
fleet attacked the English slave trader in the harbor 
of Vera Cruz in Mexico, and there followed one of 
the fiercest fights in all that warlike age. Hawkins 
was outnumbered and finally beaten. However, 
with two of his smallest vessels he managed to cut 
his way out of the harbor and escape to England. 

The Exploits of Francis Drake. — With John Hawkins 
on the disastrous voyage whose story we have just 
read, was a young relative of his named Francis 
Drake. This young sailor was destined to play a 
leading part in the coming conflict with Spain, and 
to win undying fame as one of the ^greatest English 
seamen of all time. 

Francis Drake learned two things on his ill-fated 
slave-trading adventure with Hawkins, which largely 
determined his future career. In the first place he 
came to hate the Spaniard with an abiding hatred, 



266 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

He also found out that the Spaniards brought the 
gold and silver from the Peruvian mines by sea to 
Panama, thence to be carried across the isthmus 
and reshipped to Spain. He resolved to have a share 
of this treasure in repayment of his losses at the hands 
of Spain. 

After Drake^s return to England he fitted out an 
expedition and sailed to the Isthmus of Panama. 
Here he went into the interior and lay in wait beside 
the trail along which the Spanish 
treasure was carried across the isth- 
mus. Presently he stopped a heavily 
laden mule train and took an immense 
booty, bars of silver and gold and 
jewels, most of which he succeeded in 
carrying safely to England. It was 
FRANCIS DRAKE duriug this expedition to Panama that 
lish saiiS^Jf The dJJs from a tree top on the isthmus Drake 

of Queen Elizabeth. i. t r ji t^ • n i 

caught a glimpse oi the Pacific, and 
formed the bold plan of sailing into that ocean and 
taking the Spanish treasure ships on their way from 
Peru to Panama. 

Late in 1577 Drake set sail from Plymouth, in 
England, on what proved to be his most famous 
voyage. Crossing the Atlantic, he made his way 
much as Magellan had done nearly fifty years earlier, 
along the eastern coast of South America and through 
the Strait of Magellan to the Pacific Ocean. Then 
he turned northward and swept the entire western 
coast of South America, plundering the Spaniards 
as he went. 

One of Drake's men, Francis Pretty by name, 




OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 267 

wrote an account of what happened on this coast. 
Let him tell a part of his story in the quaint, old- 
fashioned English in which it was written. On one 
occasion, ''Going on land for fresh water, we met 
with a Spaniard and an Indian boy driving eight 
llamas or sheep of Peru, which are as big as asses, 
every one of which sheep had on his back two bags 
of leather, each bag containing fifty pounds weight 
of fine silver, so that bringing both the sheep and 
their burden to the ships, we found in all the bags 
eight hundred weight of silver." 

^'To Lima we came the 13th day of February. 
We found there twelve ships lying fast moored at an 
anchor. Our general rifled these ships, and found 
in one of them a chest full of royals of plate [Spanish 
silver money], and good store of silks and linen cloth, 
and took the chest into his own ship, and good store 
of the silks and linen. In which ship he had news 
of another ship called the Cacafuego, which was gone 
toward Paita, and that the same ship was laden with 
treasure; whereupon we staid no longer here, but 
cutting all the cables of the ships in the haven, we let 
them drive whither they would, and with all speed 
we followed the Cacafuego.'' 

''John Drake, going up into the top, descried her 
about three of the clock, and about six of the clock 
we came to her and boarded her. We found in her 
great riches, as jewels and precious stones, thirteen 
chests full of royals of plate, four score pounds weight 
of gold, and six and twenty of silver. The pilot's 
boy of this ship said thus unto our general: 'Captain, 
our ship shall be called no more the Cacafuego (which 



268 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

means Spit-fire), but the Cacaplata (which means 
Spit-treasure), and your ship shall be called the 
Cacafuego/ which pretty speech made us laugh, 
both then and long after/' 

Thus ship after ship was taken until Drake began 
to think of going home. How to get there was the 
question. To retrace his way to the Strait of Magellan 
was to fall into the hands of the Spaniards, who were 
sure to watch for him in that quarter with an over- 
whelming force. So Drake sailed to the northward 
along the western coast of North America in the 
hope of finding a strait leading through that continent 
into the Atlantic Ocean. 

For a long time after the finding of the New World 
nothing was known about the size or shape of North 
America. Since Magellan had found a strait through 
the southern end of South America, why might there 
not be one through the northern extremity of North 
America? On the northeastern part of the map 
of North America you will find Frobisher Bay, Davis 
Strait, and Hudson Bay. These places are all named 
for gallant English sailors who sought a northwest 
passage to Cathay and tell us where they looked for it. 

After exploring the coast of California and naming 
the country New Albion, Drake abandoned his search 
for a passage through. America and sailed for England 
by way of the East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope, 
thus completing the second circumnavigation of the 
globe. This bold captain who had first carried the 
English flag around the world reached Plymouth in 
1580, after an absence of almost three years. Later he 
took his flagship, the ^'Golden Hind," up the Thames, 



OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 269 



where Queen Elizabeth came to dine with him on 
shipboard and upon his own quarterdeck made him a 
knight. 

As you may imagine, Sir Francis Drake was now a 
popular hero in England. The EngHsh sailors were 
ready to follow him anywhere. Again and again he 
went to the West Indies. On his greatest expedition 
to Spanish America he 
led a fleet of twenty-five 
ships with a force of 
twenty-five hundred men. 
On this trip he captured 
and held for ransom three 
Spanish cities, and did a 
vast amount of damage 
to the Spanish power in 
America. 

The First Attempts 
at English Settlement in 
America. — While Haw- 
kins and Drake were 
fighting and plundering 
the Spaniards, and Fro- 

bisher was looking for a northwest passage to Cathay, 
other EngUshmen were thinking about planting colonies 
on the coast of North America. With the men who 
served Queen EUzabeth, to think was to act. Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert was the first to plan an American 
settlement. In 1583 he took possession of Newfound- 
land and began to look for a favorable place for a 
colony. But his largest ship was lost with nearly 
all her crew, and on his way back to England, in the 




QUEEN ELIZABETH KNIGHTING 
DRAKE UPON THE DECK OF 
HIS FLAGSHIP 



270 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

midst of a furious storm, Gilbert^s own little ship 
went down with all on board. 

Gilbert's half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, at once 
took up his unfinished work. In 1584 he sent Cap- 
tains Amadas and Barlowe to explore the coast north 
of Florida. In their report these captains speak of 
the splendid pines and cedars in the forests, of the 
great number of hares, wild fowl, and deer which they 
saw, and of the profusion of the wild grapes growing 
everywhere. 

At the same time Raleigh had his friend, Richard 
Hakluyt, write an essay on the reasons for colonizing 
in America. He gave this paper to the queen in order 
to persuade her to invest money in his colonizing 
project. Hakluyt's essay helps us to understand the 
motives which led the Englishmen of Queen Elizabeth's 
time to try to make settlements in America. It 
has been summed up in the following words : 

^^Such colonies will enlarge the occasions and 
facilities for driving Spanish ships from the New- 
foundland fisheries and captiu*ing Spanish treasure 
on its way from Mexico and the Isthmus of Darien. 
They will be serviceable as stations toward the dis- 
covery and use of the northwest passage to Cathay; 
after a while they will furnish a valuable market for 
the products of English industry, especially woolen 
and linen cloths; they will increase the royal revenue 
by customs duties; they will afford new material 
for the growth of the navy and in various ways they 
will relieve England of its idlers and vagrants by 
finding occupation for them abroad." 

In 1585 Raleigh sent Ralph Lane with a hundred 



OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 271 

men to begin a settlement on Roanoke Island, on the 
coast of what is now North Carolina. These settlers 
had much trouble with the Indians, and suffered for 
lack of food. The next year Sir Francis Drake touched 
at the island while on one of his voyages, and took 
Lane and his starving men home to England with him. 
In 1587 Raleigh sent a second colony to Roanoke 
Island. After some months their leader, John White, 
returned to England to bring them 
supplies. For three years the war 
with Spain kept him from going 
back, and when at last he reached 
Roanoke Island again the settlers 
could not be found. The failure 
of Raleigh's efforts to colonize in 
America was largely due to the war 
with Spain, which kept him from sir walter 

' c ^ ' f 1 RALEIGH 

properly carmg lor the mfant col- 
ony until it grew strong enough to sustain itself. 

The Defeat of the Spanish Armada. — ^For reasons 
which we have seen, the age of Queen Ehzabeth 
was a time of bitter hatred between Englishmen 
and Spaniards. This feeling was growing in intensity 
with every passing year. England must break the 
power of Spain upon the sea before she could hope for 
success in establishing settlements in America. The 
great conflict between England and Spain during the 
closing years of the sixteenth century thus becomes of 
the first importance to us in studying the beginnings 
of our own history. It is the first chapter in the 
story of the making of an English-speaking America. 

For a long time, during the reigns of Queen Ehzabeth 




272 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

in England and of Philip the Second in Spain, the 
two countries were nominally at peace, while in fact 
Englishmen and Spaniards were fighting and plunder- 
ing each other at every opportunity. Drake was 
looting rich Spanish cities in the West Indies; while 
Englishmen were secretly helping the Dutch in their 




A SPANISH GALLEON 

It was in such ships as this that the wealth of the New World was carried to 
Spain. 

struggle for independence from Spain, and English 
sailors were robbing Spanish gold ships and striking 
blow after blow at Spanish commerce. 

Spain was the foremost nation in Europe at this 
time. Its king was busy with many interests, including 
his war with the rebellious Dutch and a great war 
with the Turks. But at last the time came when he 
decided to crush the English heretics and pirates 



OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 273 

once for all. His success would have meant Spanish 
despotism and religious persecution for England. 
The English were fighting for their very existence 
as a free people. It was a fateful moment in the 
history of the world. The future of England and the 
destiny of America depended upon the outcome of the 
war. 

Philip the Second began to collect ships and troops 
for the conquest of England. In 1587 Drake dashed 
into the harbor of Cadiz in Spain, where this prepara- 
tion was going on, set the Spanish ships on fire, cut 
their cables, and left them to drift on shore — n mass of 
blazing ruin. This he called '' singeing the king of 
Spain's beard." 

Drake's exploit gave England another year in which 
to get ready for the coming fight. Well was it for 
her in this hour of her peril that she had a host of 
sailor adventurers, led by men like Hawkins and 
Drake who had been trained for the work before 
them by twenty years of fighting the Spaniards on 
their own account. 

The following imaginary scene, taken from ^^ West- 
ward Ho!" a great novel by Charles Kingsley, shows 
us the spirit with which these English sailors faced 
the coming danger. An old merchant is grumbling 
about the loss of money invested in cargoes which 
must lie idle because the Armada, as the Spanish 
fleet was called, is coming, when one of the English 
captains. Sir Richard Grenville, turns upon him with 
these words: ^'What have private interests to do 
with this day? Let us thank God if He only pleases 
to leave us the bare fee-simple of this English soil. 



274 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

the honor of our wives and daughters, and bodies 
safe from rack and fagot to wield the swords of free 
men in defense of a free land, even though every town 
and homestead in England were wasted with fire, 
and we left to rebuild over again all which our 
ancestors have wrought for us in now six hundred 
years/' 

In the meantime the Spanish king was making 



^. ^ 1 






.-*^ ■-.- 









:4^^T 




>^^->.'^ -<^ir-^ 



THE SPANISH ARMADA 



thorough preparation for the conquest of England. 
In the early summer of 1588 his Armada sailed from 
Spain. It consisted of one hundred and thirty ships 
carrying three thousand cannon and thirty thousand 
men. It was the Spanish plan to sail up the English 
Channel and through the Strait of Dover to the 
coast of Holland, and from there to escort to England 
an army of thirty-five thousand veteran Spanish 
troops under the Duke of Parma, the greatest general 
of that time. 

It had been arranged that upon the coming of the 



OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 275 

Spaniards, beacon fires should be lighted upon every 
hilltop in England. Meantime, in the port of 
Plymouth the English fleet awaited the appearance 
of the Armada. Here were Drake and Howard, 
Hawkins and Frobisher, and a score or more of other 
English captains only less famous than these. The 
fate of their country was in their hands. 

One day ^Hhere came a gallant merchant ship full 
sail to Plymouth Bay" with the news that the Spanish 
Armada had been sighted far down the channel. 
Macaulay, in his great poem, ^^The Armada," tells 
us what happened in England that night: 

"Night fell upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea, 
Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be. 

\ From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay, 
That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day; 
For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly war-flame spread, 
High on St. Michael's Mount it shone; it shone on Beachy Head. 
Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, 
Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkhng points of fire." 

As the Armada passed Plymouth the English fleet 
came out of the harbor and attacked it. For six days 
there was a running fight up the English Channel. 
The English took a few prizes, '^plucking now and 
then a feather from the Spanish bird," as Drake said. 
At last the Spanish admiral brought his fleet, uninjured 
so far as the English could see, into the port at Calais. 

Here Drake planned a great stroke against the 
Armada. That night eight of his oldest vessels were 
coated with pitch, steered into the harbor among the 
Spanish ships, and set on fire. The whole Spanish 
fleet slipped their cables and stood out to sea, and 



276 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

the next morning the English attacked them with 
great fury. All day long the battle raged in the 
Strait of Dover. As long as their ammunition held 
out the English drove the Spanish ships before them. 
Then the wind arose and swept the Armada far out 
into the North Sea. 

Hastily collecting more powder, Drake followed the 
fleeing Spaniards as far north as the coast of Scotland, 
where he abandoned the chase. The Spaniards had 
suffered fearfully in battle and as much from two weeks 
of constant storms. Their only hope was to return to 
Spain by sailing around Scotland and Ireland. Many 
died of untended wounds, hunger, thirst, and fever. 
Many ships were wrecked upon the Scottish and Irish 
coasts. At last the remnant reached Spain. Only 
nine thousand men came back alive. 

The English eagerly followed up their victory, 
and during the next few years fought the Spaniards 
wherever they could find them. The best story of 
these years is told in Tennyson^s poem, ^'The Revenge." 
Finally, Essex, Howard, and Raleigh destroyed the 
Spanish fleet off Cadiz and captured that city. Spain 
never recovered from the effects of this great naval 
war with England. The defeat of the Great Armada 
marks the beginning of her decHne as one of the great 
powers of Europe. 

The story of the destruction of the power of Spain 
upon the sea has well been called the opening event 
in the history of the United States. Before England 
could plant colonies three thousand miles away across 
the Atlantic she must be able to protect them from 
the enmity of Spain. The great sailors of Elizabeth's 



OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 277 

time made this possible when they won for England 
the command of the sea. Sir Walter Raleigh saw this 
fact very clearly. In spite of his failures at Roanoke 
Island he wrote of America in 1602, ^'I shall yet live to 
see it an English nation." We are now ready to 
study how these words came true. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Ask your teacher to explain the meaning of the following words: 
*' toleration," "persecution," "heretics." 

2. Why did the English sympathize with the Dutch in their struggle 
against Spain? 

3. What two reasons made the English and the Spanish enemies in 
the days of Queen Ehzabeth and King Phihp II? 

4. Trace upon a map or globe the route of Drake's voyage around 
the world. 

5. Show on the map of North America what is meant by a "north- 
west passage to Cathay." 

6. Find and read Longfellow's poem, "Sir Humphrey Gilbert." 

7. WTiy did Raleigh's attempts to make settlements in America fail? 

8. Read Macaulay's poem, "The Armada." 

9. Why is the defeat of the Spanish Armada a very important event 
in the history of America? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Fiske: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, I, Chapter I. 
Froude: History of England, II, Chapters XXIII-XXV. English Sea- 
men in the Sixteenth Century. 
Creasy: Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, Chapter X. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Hale: Stories of Discovery. 

Warren : Stories from English History. 

Church : Stories from English History. 

Frothingham : Sea Fighters from Drake to Farragut. 

Bacon : The Boy's Drake. 

Higginson: Young Folks Book of American Explorers. 

Bolton: Famous Voyages. 

Barnes: Drake and His Yeomen. 



CHAPTER XVI 

HOW THE ENGLISH BEGAN A NEW NATION 
IN AMERICA 

The Rivals of Spain. — With the dawn of the seven- 
teenth century there came a new European interest 
in America. About that time the French, the Dutch, 
and the EngHsh became the active rivals of Spain 
in the work of colonizing the New World. 

French sailors and fishermen had visited the western 
shores of the Atlantic early in the six- 
teenth century and one of their number, 
Jacques Cartier, had explored the St. 
Lawrence River. A little later French- 
men attempted to plant a colony in 
Florida, but they were driven away or 
CHAMPLAiN killed by the Spaniards who claimed that 
country. Civil wars at home during 
the latter part of the century kept the French from 
making any permanent settlements in the New World 
until after 1600. But in 1608 Champlain, the greatest 
French leader in America, founded Quebec. Cham- 
plain spent the remaining years of his life in exploring 
the valley of the St. Lawrence River. 

In 1609, the year in which the long war between 
Spain and the Netherlands ended, Henry Hudson, 
an Englishman in the service of a Dutch trading 
company, explored the Hudson and opened the way 

(278) 




BEGINNING A NEW NATION 



279 



for a Dutch colony which was soon planted upon the 
banks of that river. Meanwhile, in 1607, the English 
established their first permanent colony at Jamestown 

in Virginia. , 

The Founding of Jamestown.— Late m December, 
1606, three small ships under the command of Captam 




--r— ^^^^^T^^^^^T^^^ ON THE HUDSON RIVER 

HUDSON b teMir, inr. .„.,;^^ nf the "Half Moon." made for t 



:TTTnqnV'S SHIP THE "HALF ^1UU.^, uin ms:. xx^x.^^.. "-•- 
dUUbU-N s ^snir, iixx^ "TTnif Moon made for the 

This photograph is ot an exact reproduction of the Ha.f Moon, 
Hudson-Fulton celebration in New York. 

Christopher Newport dropped quietly down the Thames 
and sailed for America. This little fleet carried one 
hundred and five pioneers who were to begin in Virginia 
that English nation of which Raleigh dreamed, iiiese 
men were sent to America by a number of London 
merchants who had formed themselves mto a com- 
pany, and had received permission from King James i 



280 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



to plant a settlement anywhere between Cape Fear 
and the Hudson River. 

If you turn back to page 270 you will find the motives 
of the men who formed this London Company. The 




/^^'r^ 



:iO 40 50 

WINSTON 



EARLY VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 

minds of the actual settlers were full of the fanciful 
notions about America which nearly everyone believed 
in those days. You can see what these notions were 
in this passage from a play which was very popular 
in London at that time. One of the characters, 



BEGINNING A NEW NATION 281 

speaking of Virginia, says, ''I tell thee, gold is more 
plentiful than copper is with us; and for as much 
red copper as I can bring I'll have thrice the weight 
in gold. Why, man, all their dripping pans are pure 
gold; all the prisoners are fettered in gold; and for 
rubies and diamonds they go forth on hoUdays and 
gather 'em by the seashore to hang on their children's 
coats and stick in their children's caps." 

An Enghsh poet of the time called Virginia ''Earth's 
only Paradise." It was to be anything 
but a paradise to the pioneers. As 
they reached Hampton Roads after 
a stormy voyage they named the point 
of land at the entrance Point Com- 
fort. They explored the James River 
until they found a spot about fifty 
miles from its mouth which pleased captain john 
them, and there they landed. May 13, 
1607. At once the settlers began to build a fort, 
which they named Fort James, and soon the settle- 
ment came to be called Jamestown. 

Jamestown lies in a low and unhealthful place, 
and as their first summer there drew on, the settlers 
suffered from disease and many of them died. ^To 
make matters worse their leaders quarreled much 
among themselves. Captain John Smith proved 
to be the only capable man among the first comers. 
He explored the country, secured food from the Indians, 
and by vigorously enforcing the rule that ''he who 
will not work shall not eat" he kept the infant colony 
alive during its first two years. 

In September, 1609, Captain John Smith was 




282 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

seriously injured by the explosion of a bag of gun- 
powder in his boat, and went to England when the 
ships returned in October. The winter which followed 
was probably the most dreadful ever passed by the 
pioneers in America. In six months famine, disease, 
and Indian attacks reduced the population of James- 
town from five hundred to sixty. This awful winter 
was ever afterwards called the "Starving Time." 

In May, 1610, two small vessels arrived at James- 
town. Their captains decided to carry the sixty 
starving wretches whom they found there back to 
England. But Virginia was not to perish thus. Before 
the departing colonists reached the mouth of the 
James River they met the new governor, Lord Dela- 
ware, with three shiploads of supplies, and all of them 
returned to Jamestown. 

The Colony of Virginia. — The coming of Lord 
Delaware was a turning point in the making of 
Virginia. There were dark days ahead still, but 
never again were the settlers to suffer as they had 
during the first three years. One by one the causes 
of the failures of those early years were sought out 
and remedied. 

Many of the hardships in early Virginia were due 
to the faults of the people themselves. They were 
ill fitted for the work that they had to do. Many 
of the first comers were what the English call '^gen- 
tlemen," that is, they had never worked and did not 
know how to work. These men were drawn to Virginia 
by the love of adventure and the thirst for wealth. 
They came in quest of pearls and gold, which, of 
course, they did not find. Many of the men sent 



BEGINNING A NEW NATION 283 

oiat by the London Company later were idle, shiftless 
fellows who were a burden to the colony. It was 
only as these men were made to work by their governors, 
and as they slowly learned in the hard school of experi- 
ence how to live in the wilderness, that their condition 
gradually improved. No small part of their sufferings, 
moreover, was due to the unhealthful place in which 
they settled. The neighborhood of Jamestown was 
low, swampy, and unhealthy. Many of the later 
plantations were more wisely located. 

At first the colonists at Jamestown owned things 
in common. If a man fished or hunted or traded with 
the Indians, the fish, game, or corn which he secured 
was not his own property, but had to be put into the 
common stock from which the needs of all were supplied. 
It did not take the lazy and the shiftless long to find 
out that this meant that they could Hve upon the 
toil of others, while naturally the industrious were 
not encouraged by seeing others Uving upon the fruit 
of their labor. Sir Thomas Dale, who came out 
as governor in 1611, began to put an end to this system 
by giving three acres of land to each of the settlers 
for his own. This aroused self-interest, and soon 
each planter came to own his own plantation. In 
order to deepen the attachment of the settlers to 
Virginia the London Company sent over young women, 
who became the wives of the planters. In this way 
cheerless military camps were changed into English 
homes. 

But the thing that did most to promote the growth 
and prosperity of Virginia was the discovery that its 
soil was especially adapted to raising the tobacco 



284 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



plant. At this time the use of tobacco was rapidly 
increasing in Europe, and, consequently, this product 

of the Virginia plan- 



L 



i 



^JiM 




tations found a ready 
market at a good 
price. This fact in- 
duced many more 
people to emigrate to 
the colony, and many 
new plantations were 
^L'-^ji^^^^^^^'^J^^j^ opened. These plan- 
^^^I^I^^Q^jim^^^^ tations were usually 
^kA '^^XJm ^^^^^ri\i\^M'^ located along the wide 

deep rivers which 
were the highways 
leading into the interior of the country. Thus the 
tobacco could be shipped 
directly from the plantation 
to England. 

The rapid growth of to- 
bacco planting in Virginia 
created a demand for more 
laborers to work in the 
tobacco fields. This de- 
mand was met by sending 
convicts and kidnapped per- 
sons from England, whose 
services were sold to the 
planters for life or for a term 
of years. Such persons 
were called indentured servants. In 1619 a Dutch 
man-of-war came up the James and sold twenty 




THE INTRODUCTION OF 
SLAVERY INTO VIRGINIA 

The Virginia planters are buying 
the negroes brought in the Dutch ship. 



BEGINNING A NEW NATION 



285 



negroes to the Virginians. This was the beginning 
of negro slavery in the EngUsh colonies in America. 
But negro slavery did not increase rapidly at first, 
and for many years there were more white servants 
than negro slaves in Virginia. 

The same year that the first slaves were brought 
into Virginia the London Company instructed the 
governor to call together representatives of the different 
settlements to make ,,, , ^^ 



laws for the colony. 
This meeting was 
called the House of 
Burgesses, and was the 
first law-making body 
in America. In 1624 
the London Company 
had its charter taken 
from it, and Virginia 
became a royal col- 
ony; that is, hence- 



•■|«iC# 




THE EARLY VIRGINIANS ATTACKED 
BY INDIANS 



forth the king appointed the governor. The people, 
however, retained their House of Burgesses. 

During the first half of the seventeenth century 
the existence of Virginia was twice threatened by 
serious Indian attacks. These wars with the red men, 
however, were only a temporary check to the growth 
of the colony. In less than forty years after those 
terrible first months of starvation and fever Virginia 
had become a thrifty and vigorous commonwealth. 
It was a land of farms, or plantations. There was 
hardly a town worthy of the name in all the colony. 
Jamestown was a mere village. As slaves and white 




286 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

servants increased in numbers, many of the planters 
worked very large farms. The following extract 
from a letter written in 1648 will help you to imagine 
what life was like on one of the great plantations 
of early Virginia : 

^^ Worthy Captain Mathews, an old planter of above 
thirty years standing, hath a fine house, and all things 
answerable to it; he sows yearly a store of hemp and 
flax, and causes it to be spun; he 
keeps weavers, and hath a tan-house, 
causes leather to be dressed, hath 
eight shoemakers employed in their 
trade, hath forty negro servants, brings 
them up to trades in his house; he 
yearly sows abundance of wheat, bar- 
GEORGE CALVERT, lev, etc. j the wheat he sells at four 

LORD BALTIMORE /.„. ' . i i i i -n . j- 

The founder of Mary- shllungS the bUShcl ; kllls Store 01 

beeves, and sells them to victual the 
ships when they come thither; hath abundance of 
kine, a brave dairy, swine great store, and poultry; 
he married the daughter of Sir Tho. Hinton, and in a 
word keeps a good house, lives bravely, and is a true 
lover of Virginia; he is worthy of much honor." 

The Planting of Maryland. — About twenty-five 
years after Virginia was planted, its neighbor, Mary- 
land, began to be settled. George Calvert was the 
founder of this colony. He seems to have early taken 
an interest in colonizing America, for he was a member 
of the London Company that founded Virginia. At 
one time Calvert was a secretary of King James I, but 
later he became a Roman Catholic and had to give up 
his office. The old king, however, was fond of him and 



BEGINNING A NEW NATION 



287 



gave him the title of Lord Baltimore. Later he found 
favor with the new king, Charles I, who had a Catholic 
wife. 

At this time the Cathohcs were persecuted in Eng- 
land, and Lord Baltimore determined to found a colony 
where they could escape the harsh laws which bore so 



r¥ ^ 









'i^M 



THE PLANTING OF MARYLAND 
This picture is from a painting by Mayer, in the State Capitol at Annapolis. 

heavily upon them. No doubt he also expected that 
such a colony would prove a profitable business venture. 
The king gave him some land in Newfoundland, and 
there he made a little settlement which he called 
Avalon. But the soil was poor, the winters long and 
severe, and at last Lord Baltimore gave up his attempt 
to hve on that bleak coast. After visiting Virginia 
he returned to England and asked the king for some 
land near that colony. This the king was willing to 



288 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

give him, but before the grant was actually made 
Lord Baltimore died. His oldest son, Cecilius, became 
the second Lord Baltimore, and to him Charles I gave 
the land of Maryland. The first settlers who came to 
Maryland were led by Leonard Calvert, a brother of 
the proprietor. 

Maryland was a proprietary colony. This meant in 
the first place that all the land in the province belonged 
to the proprietor. Lord Baltimore was very liberal 
in giving land to the actual settlers, asking in return 
only a very small rent. For instance, the earlier 
settlers had to pay him twenty or thirty pounds of 
wheat per year for every one hundred acres of land 
that they held. So long as they paid this rent the land 
belonged to them. In the second place the proprietor 
had about the same power in governing the people in 
Maryland as the king possessed over those in England. 
He could declare war, make peace, appoint all officers, 
pardon criminals, and summon the freemen to assist 
him in making laws. Very early, however, the people 
gained the right to make laws with the assent of the 
proprietor. As the proprietor lived in England he was 
represented in Maryland by a governor whom he 
appointed. 

Though Lord Baltimore planted Maryland as a 
home for his persecuted fellow Catholics, men of other 
faiths were not excluded. Very many of the earliest 
settlers were Protestants. That all the people might 
live together in harmony. Lord Baltimore drew up a 
Toleration Act which became a law in 1649. This 
noble law declared "That no person professing to 
believe in Jesus Christ shall from henceforth be any 



BEGINNING A NEW NATION 289 

ways troubled, molested or discountenanced for or in 
respect to his or her religion nor in the exercise thereof 
within this province, nor any way compelled to the 
belief or exercise of any other religion against his or 
her consent/' 

The settlers in Maryland had little trouble with the 
Indians, and from the first the colony grew rapidly. 




A FINE OLD COLONIAL HOUSE IN MARYLAND 

"Whitehall," near Annapolis, capital of Maryland. 

Farming was almost the only occupation and tobacco 
was the staple crop. The people lived along the 
rivers, and almost every plantation had water com- 
munication with its neighbors. In nearly every 
respect life in Maryland was similar to that in its 
great neighbor, Virginia. 



QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. The story of the unsuccessful French colony in Florida is charm- 
ingly told by our greatest American historian, Francis Parkman, in his 
"Pioneers of France in the New World," Chapters III-VIII. 

2. What places on the map of North America were named in honor 
of Henry Hudson? 

19 



290 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

3. Make a list of all the motives which led EngHshmen to plant 
colonies in America. 

4. To what extent were the sufferings of the early settlers in Vir- 
ginia due to the nature of the country? To what extent were they the 
fault of the people themselves? 

5. Write a short account of some one of the following topics: Tobacco 
in Virginia; Labor in Virginia; The Beginnings of Government in 
Virginia; Life on a Virginia Plantation. 

6. In what respect did Virginia and Maryland resemble each other? 
In what ways did they differ? 

7. What do you think is the most important fact to remember about 
early Maryland? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Thwaites: The Colonies. 

Cooke : Virginia. 

Fiske: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors. 

Tyler: England in America. 

Eggleston: The Beginning of a Nation. 

Channing: History of the United States, Volumes I, II. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Johnson: Boys^ Life of Captain John Smith. 
McMurry: Pioneers on Land and Sea. 
Cooke : Stories of the Old Dominion. 
Chandler: Makers of Virginia History. 
Bass: Stories of Pioneer Life. 
Gambrill: Leading Facts of Maryland History. 



CHAPTER XVII 
FROM OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 



The Puritans. — In Queen Elizabeth's time most of 
the Enghsh people belonged to the Church of England, 




SHAKESPEARE READING FROM HIS POEMS BEFORE QUEEN 
ELIZABETH 

or, as we should say in this country, the Episcopal 
Church. This church was established by law, and all 
the people were forced to support it, and were expected 
to attend it and follow its mode of worship. But many 
of the members of the Church of England were dis- 

(291) 



292 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

satisfied with its form of government and with some of 
its religious practices, such as the wearing of the sur- 
phce or gown by the minister, making the sign of the 
cross in baptism, and the use of the ring in the marriage 
ceremony. Because these people wanted to purify 
the church from the practices and beliefs which were 

distasteful to them, 
they were called 
Puritans. Bitter 
opposition by the 
government of 
England only made 
the Puritans cling 
more tenaciously 
to their beliefs and 
purposes. 

The Puritans 
held views about 
manners and mor- 
als that were quite 
*-^i^ME^^^^s^^ '■^'^^' '''=^' as objectionable to 

FINE CLOTHES IN THE TIME OF mnri'v^ nf tVinQP in 

QUEEN ELIZABETH mauy oi luosc m^ 

authority as were 
their religious opinions. At this time the English 
people were very fond of display, of fine clothes, and 
of sports and games of all kinds. Sunday afternoon 
was regarded as a holiday and was often devoted to 
coarse amusements. The Puritans thought that all 
these things were wrong. In a word, they stood for 
simplicity in worship, strict Sabbath keeping, plain 
living, and good morals. 

Now the great body of the Puritans were members of 




OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 



293 



the Church of England, working within it to change 
its form of government and its mode of worship. But 
there were httle bands of Puritans who refused to have 
anything to do with the Church of England. These 
bands of people were called Separatists, because they 
left the church and organized independent societies 
of their own. A\Tiile James I and Charles I tried to 
force all the Puritans to worship according to the 
forms of the Established Church, they persecuted the 
Separatists without 
mercy. The Pilgrim 
Fathers, who were the 
first settlers in New 
England, were Sepa- 
ratists. Persecution 
in England drove them 
to America, where 
they could live the 
pure and simple life 
in which they beheved, worship as they thought 
right, and train their children to follow in their 
footsteps. 

The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers. — About a dozen 
years before they came to New England, most of the 
Pilgrim Fathers lived in the httle village of Scrooby 
in the north of England. Here John Robinson was 
pastor of the village church, William Brewster was 
postmaster and one of the influential men of the 
neighborhood, while John Carver, Wilham Bradford, 
and Edward Winslow were younger men who were to 
play a great part in beginning an English settlement in 
America. Persecuted because of their religion the 




THE BREWSTER HOUSE 
The home of one of the Pilgrim Fathers near 
Scrooby in England. 



294 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

members of the Scrooby congregation fled to Holland, 
which was even then a land of religious freedom. 

The Pilgrim Fathers lived in Holland for several 
years, but all the time they longed for a home of their 
own, where they could keep their English habits and 
speech and where their children could have a better 
chance in life than was possible in the country in which 
they had taken refuge. At last they resolved to seek 
such a place in America. They obtained a loan of 
money from some merchants in London and a grant 
of land from the London Company; and finally, after 
many discouragements, one hundred and two of their 
number sailed from Plymouth, England, in the '^ May- 
flower," on September 6, 1620. 

The voyage of the ^'Mayflower" was full of peril. 
William Bradford, one of the passengers, says, ''We 
met with many fierce storms; with which the ship 
was made very leaky." Some wanted to return, but 
the Pilgrim Fathers were made of stern stuff, and after 
repairing the ship as best they could, they proceeded 
on their way. Their first sight of land was in the 
neighborhood of Cape Cod. This was farther north 
than they had intended to settle, but after struggling 
with the shoals and breakers in a vain effort to go 
farther south, they were glad to find shelter inside the 
cape. 

Feeling the need of a government, on the day they 
came to harbor they drew up and signed a paper called 
the Mayflower Compact, in which they promised 
obedience to such laws as they should make for the 
general good of the colony. The second day they set 
ashore several men to explore the country and see 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 295 

what the land was like. After nearly a month spent 
in looking for a suitable place for settlement the 
Pilgrim Fathers entered Plymouth Bay. When they 
had examined this harbor and the land near it they 
thought that it was "a place very good for situation." 
Here they decided to settle ''on a high ground where 









^- 










^d 


yp 


m 


wM 




»' 


1 


jfp 


% 




i-- 




^^^ 




m 





From a painting by Boughton 
THE RETURN OF THE "MAYFLOWER" 
The artist represents the Pilgrims left alone in America watching the "Mayflower" 
disappear in the distance. 

there is a good deal of land cleared, and where there is a 
sweet brook that runs under the hillside." 

It was late in December, 1620, when the Pilgrim 
Fathers at last reached Plymouth. They spent the 
winter in building their houses. iVll this time they 
suffered severely from exposure to the weather and 
from the lack of proper food. Before spring came one- 
half of their number were dead. Even this dreadful 
experience did not shake the purpose of these iron- 
hearted men. In the spring Squanto, a friendly Indian, 
showed the settlers how to plant corn, and they caught 



296 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

great quantities of fish. During the summer of 1621 
the Pilgrims sent out parties to explore the sur- 
rounding country. In November of that year thirty- 
five newcomers from England joined them. With 
comfortable cabins and plenty of corn they faced 
their second winter in the New World with stout 
hearts. 

The Pilgrim Fathers seem to have been greatly 




PLYMOUTH IN 1622 



pleased with their new home. Edward Winslow, one 
of their number, writing to a friend in England, thus 
describes it: 'Tor the temper of the air here, it agreeth 
well with that in England ; and if there be any difference 
at all, this is somewhat hotter in summer. The air is 
very clear; and I never in my life remember a more 
seasonable year than we have here enjoyed; and if 
we have once but kine, horses, and sheep, I make no 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 297 

question but that men might hve as contented here 
as in any part of the world." 

Of course there was great hardship during all the 
earlier years at Plymouth. At first the colonists were 
hampered by the bad plan of owning everything in 
common, which had resulted so disastrously at James- 
town. They soon gave this up. The settlers bought 
furs of the Indians, and shipped beaver skins and 




AN OLD NEW ENGLAND HOUSE 
The home of Jolm Alden, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, 

lumber to England. They depended largely upon 
fishing for their food. They were industrious and 
thrifty, and before the colony was fifteen years old 
the debt to the London merchants had been paid, 
and each settler had a farm of his own. 

Year by year, as more settlers came from England, 
other towns were begun near Plymouth. But the 
colony grew slowly and was never very large. It is 
the special glory of the Pilgrim Fathers that through 
scenes of gloom and misery they showed the way to 



298 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

those who were willing to brave the dangers of the 
wilderness in order to win the right to worship God as 
they pleased. 

"What sought they thus afar? 
Bright jewels of the mine? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? 
They sought a faith's pure shrine! 

"Ay, call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod: 
They have left unstained what there they found — 
Freedom to worship God." 

In 1691 the colony of Plymouth was joined to 
its larger neighbor, Massachusetts Bay. We must 



1 


J- 


— LJ'~ 










~ 






-_- 




^u^) 







\^ 




A PURITAN MINISTER PREACHING 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 299 

now turn to the beginnings of this, the largest of the 
Puritan settlements in America. 

How the Puritans Came to Massachusetts. — In 1625 
King James I died and his son Charles became king 
of England. During the next three years King Charles 
quarreled with Parliament because it would not vote 
for the taxes that he wished. In 1629 the king dis- 
solved Parliament and it was eleven years before he 
summoned another. During this time Charles taxed 
the people without their consent, and, aided by Arch- 
bishop Laud, did his best to force the Puritans to wor- 
ship according to the forms of the Church of England. 
The Puritans were forced to pay taxes which Parlia- 
ment had not voted and to take part in church services 
which they thought idolatrous. For these reasons 
many of them resolved to go to a country in which 
they could have their own way in politics and religion. 

For two or three years before 1630 some of the 
Puritan leaders had been thinking of this migration 
and preparing the way for it. In 1628 several of them 
obtained a grant of land in New England. The same 
year John Endicott led an advance guard of about 
sixty pioneers who established themselves at Salem. 
Here they found a few survivors of a little fishing 
settlement planted on that coast some years before. 

Early in the summer of 1629 Endicott 's little band at 
Salem was reinforced by nearly four hundred new 
settlers, who brought horses, cows, and goats with 
them. With this company came Francis Higginson, a 
learned Puritan minister. Not long after his arrival 
we find him writing to his friends in England urging 
them to come to America, and giving them some good 



300 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



advice about what to bring with them. In this letter 
he says: '^ Those that come first speed best here, and 
have the privilege of choosing choice places of habita- 
tions. Let them bring mares, kine, and sheep as many 
as they can. Of all trades carpenters are the most 
needful, therefore bring as many as you can. Be sure 

to furnish yourselves with 
things fitting to be had 
before you come ; as meal 
for bread, malt for drink, 
woolen and linen cloth, 
and leather for shoes, and 
all manner of carpenter's 
tools, and a great deal of 
iron and steel to make 
nails, and locks for houses 
and furniture* for ploughs 
and carts, and glass for 
windows, and as many 
other things which were 
better for you to think of 
them there than to want 
them here." He adds, "While I was writing this 
letter my wife brought me word that the fishers caught 
sixteen hundred bass at one draught, which if they 
were in England were worth many a pound." 

This same year, 1629, the Puritans in England who 
were interested in the enterprise of a settlement in 
America secured a charter from the king creating the 
Company of Massachusetts Bay, and authorizing this 

* By furniture for plows and carts the Puritan writer means shares for the plows, 
tires for the cart-wheels, and other materials needed in finishing these implements and 
vehicles. 




-- ' Massachusetts Historical Society 

JOHN WINTHROP 
One of the greatest of the Puritan 
leaders. 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 301 

company to govern the colony which they were plant- 
ing. In 1630 John Winthrop, the governor of the 
company and one of the noblest figures in American 
history, led a great company of one thousand persons 
to the Massachusetts Bay colony. When Winthrop 
and his companions came to America they brought 
the charter of the company with them. Then they 
admitted many of the settlers to membership in the 
company, and in this way the colony came to govern 
itself. During the next ten years — the years of the 
tyranny of Charles I and Archbishop Laud — nearly 
twenty thousand Puritans came to this colony of 
Massachusetts Bay. 

The Colony of Massachusetts Bay. — The Puritans 
of Massachusetts Bay prospered from the start. 
Within a few years some twenty towns were founded, 
roads opened, bridges built, and permanent houses 
erected. Soon the farms yielded plenty of corn, and 
supported hundreds of cattle. The settlers sent 
lumber, furs, and salted fish to England in exchange 
for the manufactured articles which they needed. 
Throughout the colonial period of our history Massa- 
chusetts was the largest and most important of the 
Puritan colonies. 

We have seen that the Puritans came to America 
to have their own way in society and church and state. 
The life of the early Massachusetts towns centered in 
the church. The meeting house, as the church was 
called, was usually built upon the highest land in the 
neighborhood. Here on Sabbath morning the people 
were called together by drum or horn. The pastor 
began the service with a prayer often an hour long. 



302 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Then he read and explained a chapter from the Bible. 
After this a psalm was sung. Then came the sermon, 
which usually lasted for two hours. The service 
concluded with a prayer and blessing. 

The farms within convenient distance of the meeting 
house formed a township. Near the meeting house 




m 



rnpr. Tnp::!hlrl JUstorical Society 
A MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE BUILT IN 1GS4 

was the town pasture or '^ common" and the school 
house. The dwellings clustered about the meeting 
house and the common. Soon a tavern and a store 
appeared and thus a village was formed. Once a year 
the voters of the township held a town meeting where 
the officers were chosen to preserve peace and order, 
to manage the school, to look after stray animals, and 
to attend to any other town business. The town 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 303 

meeting also determined the amount of town taxes 
to be raised for the year. 

Each town elected men to represent it in the law- 
making body of the colony. In addition to these 
representatives the government of the colony was 
composed of a governor, and deputy governor, and 
eighteen assistants, all elected by the people. Thus 
you see the people of the Massachusetts Bay colony 
governed themselves and were almost independent of 
England. 

Roger Williams and the Providence Plantation. — 
Many of the early settlements in New England outside 
of Massachusetts were made by people who came from 
England to Massachusetts, and later left that colony 
either because they did not like its ways and its people 
or because the people in it did not like them. The 
Puritans w^ho settled Massachusetts came in order to 
have their own way and their own opinions, and did 
not look kindly on any who differed from them. 

Roger Williams, a minister at Salem, was the great- 
est mail who was driven away from Massachusetts 
because the leaders of that colony disliked his opinions 
and his teachings. He taught that there should be a 
general toleration of all religions, that no one should 
be compelled to worship against his will, and that 
everyone should have the right to worship God in any 
way that he thought right. Williams also said that the 
land belonged to the Indians, that the king of England 
could not give it to the settlers because it did not 
belong to him, and that the only rightful way in which 
the settlers could get the land was by purchase from 
the Indians. 



304 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

These views were very distasteful to the men of 
Massachusetts. They feared that Wilhams' talk 
about the ownership of the land might get them into 
trouble with the government of England. Very few 




EARLY COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND 



people then believed as Roger Williams did about 
freedom of opinion. Indeed, the idea of freedom in 
religious matters never was widely accepted in modern 
civilization until it grew up in America under the 
wise leadership of such men as Roger Williams, Lord 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 305 

Baltimore, and William Penn, the founder of Penn- 
sylvania. Roger Williams was one of the noblest men 
in our history, brave, sincere, full of loving kindness. 




ROGER WILLIAMS ESCAPING INTO THE FOREST 

In his thought about toleration he was one of the great 
leaders of the world. 

Early in 1636 the government of Massachusetts 
resolved to arrest Roger Williams and put him on board 

20 



306 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

a ship about to sail for England. But the good man 
learned of their purpose and fled into the forest in the 
midst of a New England winter. He says, ''I steered 
my course from Salem — ^though in winter snow which 
I feel yet — to the Narragansett Bay and Indians. 
I was sorely tossed for one fourteen weeks, in a bitter 




ROGER WILLIAMS LANDING AT PROVIDENCE 

winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did 
mean." 

In June, 1636, Roger Williams found a place upon the 
shore of Narragansett Bay which pleased him, and here, 
with four companions who had now joined him, he 
began the first settlement in Rhode Island. In grati- 
tude to ''God's merciful providence to him in his 
distress," he named his new home Providence. Soon 
his wife and children joined him in it, and we may be 
sure that they all had their full share of the hard work 
which pioneers always have to do. Williams says that 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 307 

his 'Hime was spent day and night; at home and 
abroad, at the hoe and at the oar, for bread." Soon 
friends of Roger Wilhams from Massachusetts and 
people from England began to come to the new colony 
of Providence. With increasing numbers they felt 
the need of a government, and established one by 
agreement among themselves. No one was ever 
molested in this colony on account of his religious 
opinions. 

Anne Hutchinson and Her Friends. — Roger Williams 
was not the only person whose opinions troubled the 
Puritans of Massachusetts Bay. Among the settlers 
at Boston was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, "sl woman of 
kind heart, quick wits, and persuasive address." 
Mrs. Hutchinson held a weekly religious meeting for 
the women at which she taught her peculiar views and 
criticised the ministers from whom she differed. It is 
hard for us to understand what her opinions mean, 
but many of the Puritans of Boston agreed with John 
Winthrop that she was teaching dangerous errors, 
while some said that Anne Hutchinson was ''like 
Roger Williams, or worse." But Mrs. Hutchinson was 
a very capable and eloquent woman, and she won a 
large number of the people, including some of the 
ministers and the governor. Sir Henry Vane, to her 
way of thinking. The result was a very bitter and 
hateful church quarrel. In 1637 John Winthrop was 
elected governor, and his party banished Anne Hutchin- 
son and her friends from the colony. 

Some of Mrs. Hutchinson's friends went beyond the 
northern boundary of Massachusetts and there founded 
several new towns. Portsmouth and Dover in this 



308 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

region had already been settled by the followers of 
Mason and Gorges, two Englishmen who had received 
a grant of the land between the Merrimac and the 
Kennebec. In 1641 all these northern towns were 
added to Massachusetts, but in 1679 King Charles II 
made a separate province of them under a governor 
appointed by the king. In this way began the colony 
of New Hampshire. 

Mrs. Hutchinson and the rest of her followers 
bought a large island in Narragansett Bay from the 
Indians, and settled at Portsmouth and Newport. 
Twenty-five years later these settlements were joined 
with the colony founded at Providence by Roger 
Williams, to form the state of Rhode Island. In 1663 
Charles II gave the colony of Rhode Island a charter 
under which its people were free to govern themselves. 

The Early Puritan Settlements in Connecticut. — 
The ministers were the natural leaders in the Massa- 
chusetts towns. On the last day of May, 1636, 
Thomas Hooker, pastor of the church at Newton, 
started with one hundred and sixty members of his 
congregation for the valley of the Connecticut River. 
Driving their cattle before them, these pilgrims struck 
out into the almost pathless wilderness. After a 
journey of two weeks they found the beautiful 
Connecticut valley before them. Here and there 
they could see the wigwams of the Indians and the 
cabins of a few settlers who had preceded them. 

The few settlers whom Hooker found in the valley 
of the Connecticut had a sad story to tell. During 
the preceding summer and autumn little bands of 
colonists from some of the Massachusetts towns had 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 309 

begun settlements at Hartford, Wethersfield, and 
Windsor on the Connecticut. This advance guard had 
passed a horrible winter. By the middle of November 
the river was blocked by ice, and the vessels which 
were to have brought their winter supplies by way of 
Long Island Sound were compelled to return to Boston. 
Starvation stared them in the face. Some of them 
made their way down the river to the sound, where 
they found a vessel on which they made their way back 
to Boston. Others struggled back through the icy 
forests to the settlements on Massachusetts Bay. A 
few held on with a desperate grip and managed to 
live through the winter on what game they could find, 
on a little grain bought from the Indians, and on acorns 
which they dug from under the snow. This handful of 
brave pioneers were saved by the arrival of Hooker 
and his party. 

What led these Connecticut pioneers through a 
hundred miles of forest, haunted by wild beasts and 
still more savage men, to a new home in the wilderness? 
When they asked the Massachusetts government to 
permit them to go to the Connecticut valley they 
mentioned the difficulty in finding pasturage for their 
cattle in Massachusetts, and spoke of the fertility of 
Connecticut and the danger that the Dutch would 
possess it. Their desire to move was also partly due 
to a growing dislike of the government of Massa- 
chusetts. In that colony only church members 
could vote. The leaders of the Massachusetts Puritans 
did not believe that all the people ought to have a 
voice in the government. Thomas Hooker and the 
men who planted the new colony on the banks of the 



310 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



Connecticut wanted a democratic government based 
on the votes of all the people. In 1639 Connecticut 
adopted a written constitution establishing a govern- 
ment "by the people, for the people." 

The pioneers on the Connecticut lived in the midst 

of perils. Hardly were they settled in their new 

homes before they had to fight for their lives. East 

^^.^_ , , of them lived a hos- 

TI^^ ir^^-^l ^^^^ ^^^ warlike tribe 
of Indians, the Pe- 
quots. These Indians 
had murdered several 
traders, and Massa- 
chusetts sent John 
Endicott to punish 
them. Endicott and 
his men killed a few 
Pequots and seized 
some of their corn. 
This only enraged the 
red men, and in their 
fury they fell upon the Connecticut settlers. Several 
were killed, and two girls were carried away by the 
Indians. The Pequots tried to get the Narragansett 
Indians to help them, but they were thwarted in this 
effort by the courage and influence of Roger WilHams. 
In the spring of 1637 Captain John Mason with 
ninety Connecticut men and some friendly Indians 
surprised a large village of the Pequots. The wig- 
wams were set on fire and nearly all the Indians in the 
village lost their hves. The remnant of the Pequots, 
not present at this slaughter, were hunted down and 




PURITANS BARRICADING THEIR 

DOORS AGAINST A 

THREATENED ATTACK 

BY THE INDIANS 



OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 311 

most of them killed. This terrible vengeance so 
impressed the red men that for nearly forty years after 
the destruction of the Pequots the Indians of New 
England dared not lift their hands against the white 
men. 

About the time the first settlers went from Massa- 
chusetts to the valley of the Connecticut, John 
Winthrop, a son of the Massachusetts governor, began 
a colony at the mouth of that river. Winthrop was 
acting for several Enghsh noblemen who had obtained 
a grant of land in that locality, and the town which he 
planted was named Saybrook after two of the pro- 
prietors. In 1644 Saybrook was sold to the Connec- 
ticut settlers and became a part of their colony. 

In 1638 a company of English Puritans, many of 
them wealthy men from London, under the leadership 
of Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport, founded a 
town which they called New Haven. During the next 
two or three years several other towns were begun in 
that vicinity. These towns united to form the colony 
of New Haven. In 1662 the king of England gave 
Connecticut a charter which annexed New Haven 
to it. In this way the present state of Connecticut 
was formed. 

Between 1628 and 1640 many thousand Puritans 
came to New England because they were persecuted 
at home. Most of them first came to Massachusetts, 
but for some reason or other, as we have seen, many of 
them left Massachusetts to become founders of the 
other Puritan colonies in New England. All the 
Puritan colonies were begun before 1640. The ways of 
making a Uving, the manners and customs, the mode of 



312 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

worship, and the forms of local government in all the 
New England colonies outside Massachusetts were 
very much like those of that state. Everywhere in 
New England the people found the same hardships and 
dangers, and everywhere they faced the trials of 
pioneer life with the same stout hearts. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. What ideas about Sabbath keeping and amusements do we owe 
to the Puritans? 

2. What do you admire about the Pilgrim Fathers? 

3. What conditions in England caused the Puritans to come to 
America? 

4. What ideas about reUgion and government did the Puritans bring 
with them to America? 

5. For what are we indebted to Roger Williams? 

6. How did the colony of Connecticut differ from Massachusetts? 

7. Draw a map of New England and locate upon it all the places 
mentioned in this chapter. 

8. How did New England differ from Virginia? In what ways did 
they resemble each other? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Thwaites: The Colonies. 

Fiske : The Beginnings of New England. 

Tyler: England in America. 

Eggleston: The Beginners of a Nation. 

Channing: History of the United States, Volumes I, II. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Tiffany: Pilgrims and Puritans. 
Brooks : Stories of the Old Bay State. 
Hawthorne: Grandfather's Chair. 
Drake : The Making of New England. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE SECOND PERIOD OF ENGLISH SETTLEMENT 
IN AMERICA 

The Revolution in England Checks Colonizing for a 
Time. — In 1640 King Charles I found that he could 
no longer rule without a Parliament. The famous 
Long Parliament which he summoned that year tried 
to check his tyranny and reform the government of 
England. The result was that two years later a civil 
war broke out between the king and his friends on one 
side and the people who supported Parliament on the 
other. 

The Parliamentary party was largely made up of 
Puritans, and in the end it defeated the king, took him 
prisoner, and finally put him to death. England was 
declared a republic, but it was really governed by 
Oliver Cromwell, the greatest of the Puritan leaders 
and one of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived. 
Cromwell died in 1658, and after two years of confusion 
the kingdom was restored and Charles II, a son of 
the Charles who had been executed, was put upon the 
throne. The attempt of the Puritans to estabHsh a 
republic in England had failed. This home-coming of 
the young king is called the Restoration. 

These events had a direct influence upon the settle- 
ment of America. Between 1640 and 1660 the Puri- 
tans, who had founded. all the New England colonies 

(313) 



314 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

before 1640, were fighting for their rights in England; 
and during most of that period they actually ruled the 
country. As they could now have their own way at 
home, their motive for going to America no longer 
existed. Consequently, Puritan emigration almost 




OLIVER CROMWELL 
The artist pictures Cromwell in the palace of Whitehall, the home of Charles L 

entirely stopped after 1640. While some of the 
friends of the defeated king came to hve in Virginia, 
not a single new English colony was begun in America 
between 1640 and 1660. 

How Charles II Gave Land in America to His 
Friends. — The reign of King Charles II was the 
second period of English colonization in America. 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 315 

This king was selfish and pleasure loving. Much of 
his early life had been spent in exile; and he was 
determined, as he said, '^not to set out on his 
travels again." He gathered about him friends like 
himself. For twenty-five years he lived in the midst 
of this gay, frivolous, and wicked court. Charles 
rewarded the friends who had helped him to recover 
the throne and paid some of those to whom he owed 
money by giving them great tracts of land in America. 
Thus it happened that every 
English colony begun in America 
between 1660 and 1685 was pro- 
prietary. 

The Settlers of Carolina.— The 
first colony established under 
Charles II was Carolina. In 1663 
the king gave the land between 
Virginia and Florida to the Duke 

r A lu T xi_ T. 1 r r^i ^^^^G CHARLES II 

01 Albemarle, the Earl oi Claren- 
don, and six other gentlemen. The real object of 
these men in begging this vast tract of land from 
the king was the increase of their own wealth and 
dignity. The authority of the eight proprietors over 
Carolina was somewhat similar to that of Lord Balti- 
more over Maryland. 

As early as 1635 people from Virginia began to settle 
on the Chowan River near Albemarle Sound. Year by 
year more settlers, poor whites, Quakers, and others 
who for one reason or another found life in Virginia 
uncomfortable, drifted southward into the wilderness. 
This Albemarle settlement was given a governor by 
its new proprietors in 1664. More settlers came from 




316 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

England and the northern colonies. This was the 
beginning of the colony of North Carolina. 

Far to the south on the Carolina coast there is a 
noble harbor into which there came in 1670 another 
company of colonists from England. At first these 




THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA 



people settled a short distance up a river which flows 
into this harbor, but ten years later they removed 
to a better site at its mouth. Here they founded 
the city of Charleston. This was the beginning of 
South Carolina. 

It was not the intention of the proprietors to have 
two Carolinas. However, such vast forests separated 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 317 

the Albemarle and Charleston settlements, that it was 
soon found more convenient to give each its own 
government. Quite naturally the names North Caro- 
lina and South Carolina came into common use. The 
proprietors were often unwise in their management of 




THE HOME OF A WEALTHY SOUTH CAROLINA PLANTER 

"Cool Springs," near Camden, S. C 

these colonies, and most of the governors that they 
sent out to represent them in America were bad men. 
More than once the people of the Carolinas rebelled 
against them. At last the proprietors sold their 
claim to the king, and in 1729 the Carolinas were 
made royal provinces. 

Large numbers of the oppressed people of other 
lands came to join the early EngHsh settlers in the 



318 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Carolinas. At this time Louis XIV ruled in France. 
His government was the most despotic, extravagant, 
and corrupt which that country ever knew. The 
bitter persecution of the Huguenots, as the French 
Protestants were called, was not the least of his many 
acts of tyranny. Although the king forbade these 
people to leave France, many of them fled from that 
country, and in spite of great dangers and much suffer- 
ing made their way to America, where they found 
homes in South Carolina. 

To North Carolina there came Swiss and Germans 
from the valley of the Rhine, Highlanders from Scot- 
land, and, most important of all, Scotch-Irishmen from 
the north of Ireland. We shall hear more of these 
Scotch-Irish when we study the history of Pennsyl- 
vania, where they settled in large numbers, and whence 
many of them moved southward into Virginia and the 
Carolinas. All these people were strong, industrious, 
and liberty loving, splendid material for the upbuilding 
of free states. 

The Contrast between North Carolina and South 
Carolina. — The two Carohnas were strikingly unlike. 
The coast region of North Carolina consists of sand 
barrens and swamps, and there are few good harbors. 
Most of the early settlers of this colony lived on small 
farms in the interior. There were a few larger planta- 
tions and some slaves. Tobacco was the chief crop, 
but some rice was grown along the Cape Fear River. 
Tar, turpentine, and timber from the famous yellow 
pine of this region were the basis of a thriving com- 
merce. There were no towns of any importance, and 
no schools until just before the Revolution. In a word, 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 



319 



.^ i 



the colonial North Carolinians lived the rude and often 
lawless life of the frontier. 

In South Carolina the colonists lived near the coast, 
and Charleston soon grew to be an important seaport. 
Nearby were great rice plantations worked by large 
gangs of slaves who were often harshly treated. The 
growing of rice was very profitable. A slave could 
raise more than his 
own value in a single 
year. Later the culti- 
vation of indigo came 
to be almost equally 
important. Most of 
the wealthy planters 
lived in Charleston at 
least part of the year, 
and many of them sent 
their sons to England 
to be educated. 

The Beginning of Georgia.^ — More than fifty years 
after the Carolinas were settled, another colony was 
founded still farther to the southward. This came 
about in the following manner: LL^he Spaniards in 
Florida were a constant menace to the Carolinians. 
At this time people in England who could not pay their 
debts were put in prison. James Oglethorpe, a veteran 
soldier whose heart was touched by the miserable 
condition of the debtors in the English jails, planned 
to give these poor people a chance to begin life again 
in the New World and at the same time to establish a 
military outpost near the Spanish frontier. With 
these purposes in mind he joined with several other 




A COLONIAL HOME IN CHARLESTON 
The Pringle House, Charleston, S. C. 



320 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



men in securing a grant of land which was called 
Georgia after the king who gave it. This grant was 
made in 1732, and the next year Oglethorpe founded 
Savannah. The debtors proved to be poor pioneers, 




100 
NSTON 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES 

and when this was found out no more of them were 
sent to Georgia. But other settlers came, some from 
the colonies farther north and some from Germany. 
In its hfe and industries the colony of Georgia closely 
resembled its neighbor, South Carohna. In 1752 it 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 



321 



became a royal province. Georgia grew very slowly, 
and at the end of the colonial period it was still one of 
the weakest of the English settlements in America. 

The Dutch Colony of New Netherland.— Within five 
years of the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry 
Hudson the Dutch had estabhshed trading stations 
upon the banks of that stream. Dutch traders came to 
these stations to get the skins of the beaver, the otter, 
and the mink. A Dutch writer of the time says that 
in exchange for their peltries the Indians received 




NEW AMSTERDAM IN 1655 

''beads, with which they decorated their persons; 
knives, adzes, axes, case-knives, kettles and all sorts 
of iron ware which they require for housekeeping." 

In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was given 
the exclusive right to trade in, to settle, and to govern 
New Netherland, as the Dutch territory in America 
was called. Tv^ro years later this company sent the 
first party of permanent colonists to the banks of the 
Hudson. Some of these settlers founded New Amster- 
dam on Manhattan Island, while others went up the 
river to Fort Nassau near the present site of Albany. 

New Netherland grew very slowly. There was 
much trade, but the number of actual settlers was 
small. At this time the Dutch were too prosperous 

21 



322 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 




and happy in their own country to leave it in large 
numbers. To quicken the growth of the colony the 
West India Company offered to give a great tract of 
land to any of its members who would bring fifty 
grown-up persons to New Netherland and settle them 
in homes in the country. The proprietors of these 
great estates were called patroons. The patroon 

received a rent from 
the farmers settled on 
his land, and besides 
this he was entitled to 
a part of the increase of 
the cattle and to a part 
of the crop. In a few 
years there were several 
patroons living on the 
banks of the Hudson. 
New Netherland, unlike the New England colonies 
near it, did not have self-government. Its people 
were ruled by a governor and other officers sent out 
by the West India Company. The most famous of the 
Dutch governors of New Netherland was the last one, 
Peter Stuyvesant. Washington Irving calls him ^'a 
valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leathi 
ern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited old governor.'' 
Stuyvesant ruled with an iron hand, but the colony 
grew and prospered under his sway. His most serious 
troubles were with intruders from other countries who 
were trying to get a foothold on the soil of New 
Netherland. 

The Dutch claimed that New Netherland included 
the valleys of the Delaware and the Connecticut as 



THE \AN RLNbhELAER HOUSE 
The home of a great Dutch patroon upon 
the Hudson River. 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 



323 



well as that of the Hudson. They established trading 
posts on both of these rivers. In 1638 the Swedes 
made a settlement within the present state of Delaware. 




PETER STUYVESANT ON THE STREET IN NEW AMSTERDAM 
Notice the dress of these Dutch colonists. 

The Dutch protested that the Swedes were trespassing 
upon their territory, but as they wanted the friend- 
ship of Sweden in Europe at this time they did nothing 



324 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



more. By 1655 affairs had so changed in Europe 
that the Dutch thought it time to act. Governor 
Stuyvesant invaded New Sweden with a large force, 
and the people of that colony surrendered. They were 
not molested, but became subject to the government 
of New Netherland. 

How New Netherland Became New York. — On the 

Connecticut the Dutch 
.vvv^^^^^ v^v ^gpg iggg fortunate. 

They had a trading 
post on that river, but 
the English settlers 
came so thick and fast 
that they were unable 
to maintain it. Later 
English colonists began 
to encroach upon the 
Dutch settlements on 
Long Island and west 
of New Haven. The 
English had always 
claimed that New 
Netherland rightfully 
belonged to them, and 
at last Charles II made up his mind to seize it. 

In 1664 Colonel Nicolls, with four ships and five 
hundred veteran English troops, appeared before New 
Amsterdam. Governor Stuyvesant wanted to fight 
to the last ditch but his people would not support him. 
Many of them were weary of his arbitrary ways, and 
thought that they would have more liberty under 
an English government. Ninety-three of the leading 




PETER STUYVESANT DENOUNCING 
TERMS OF SURRENDER 



SECOND PERIOD OP SETTLEMENT 325 



\ 



i .. 



n 









/ * 










l'{ V 













326 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

citizens signed a remonstrance against resistance. 
^' Women and children flocked about the brave old 
man and added their entreaties." ''Well, let it be so/' 
he said, ''I had rather be carried to my grave." In 
a few moments the white flag fluttered over the ram- 
parts of Fort Amsterdam, and so the rule of Holland 
in America came peacefully to an end. 

King Charles II had already given this Dutch 
province of New Netherland to his brother James, 
duke of York, and in honor of the new proprietor the 
name of the colony and of its principal town was 
changed to New York. In 1685 the duke of York 
became king as James II, and New York became a 
royal province. 

The English conquest of New Netherland brought 
few changes to the Dutch inhabitants. Perhaps the 
most important of these changes was in giving them 
more power to manage their own local affairs. For 
many years there were more Dutchmen than English- 
men in the colony, and New York life kept many of 
its Dutch features throughout the colonial period. 
Slowly more settlers came, Enghsh, Scotch, French 
Huguenots, and Germans. Most of the people of 
early New York made their living by farming and by 
trading with the Indians. 

The Origin of New Jersey. — In 1664, not long after 
the duke of York received the grant of New Nether- 
land, he sold the part of it which we call New Jersey 
to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. 
Carteret's settlements were made in the northeastern 
part of New Jersey, while Berkeley's part was in the 
west along the Delaware. After a few years Berkeley 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 327 

sold his share to some Quakers. New Jersey was then 
divided into East Jersey and West Jersey, and many 
Quakers settled at Burlington and Salem. Later 
both of the Jerseys changed hands, and there was 
much trouble about the rights of the proprietors. 
The people disliked the proprietary government very 
much, and at last, in 1702, the Jerseys were united into 
one royal colony. 

There were a few Dutch settlers in New Jersey 
before 1664. Besides the Quakers already mentioned, 
people came to this colony from England, and espe- 
cially from Scotland, where a horrible persecution of 
the Presbyterians drove many of that sect to America. 
New Jersey was a prosperous agricultural colony and 
had a quiet and uneventful history until the Revolution. 

William Penn and the Quakers. — The last of the 
proprietary colonies founded in the days of King 
Charles II was Pennsylvania. This colony was begun 
through the enterprise and wisdom of the greatest 
man who ever led a company of English settlers to 
America, the famous Quaker statesman, Wilham Penn. 

The Society of Friends, or Quakers, was one of the 
religious sects that arose in England during the troub- 
lous times in the middle of the seventeenth century. 
George Fox was the first great leader of the Quakers. 
Fox and the early Quakers believed that God speaks 
directly to the soul of every man. This voice within 
they called the Inner Light. They believed that they 
must wait in silence for this voice, and that when they 
heard it they must act as it directed. Such a faith 
left no place for priests or ministers, and made religious 
ceremonies seem unnecessary. 



328 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

The Quakers believed that all men are equal. They 
refused to take off their hats to anyone. They said 
^Hhee" and ^Hhou'' to all men and women without 
any respect to their rank or station in life. The 
Quakers were very outspoken and preached very 
plainly, rebuking iniquity wherever they found it. 
They refused to serve in the army or take judicial 
oaths, and while obedient to all laws which they thought 
just, they disobeyed every law which they thought 
wrong. As there were many bad laws in England 
in the seventeenth century, the early Quakers were 
often in trouble. 

WilHam Penn was the son of an admiral in the 
English navy. While William was a student in the 
University of Oxford he was deeply moved by the words 
of a Quaker preacher. Presently he was sent home for 
refusing to obey a rule of the college which he thought 
wrong. Admiral Penn was very angry and sent his 
son off to France in the hope that a gay life there 
would make him forget his Quaker fancies. After two 
years of study and travel abroad William Penn came 
home and began to study law. He was a handsome 
young man with polished manners, but was still deeply 
interested in the Quaker teachings. A Uttle later he 
made his final decision to become a member of that 
despised sect. 

Penn soon became a Quaker preacher. During the 
next few years he was often put in prison for preaching 
contrary to the laws of that time which forbade free- 
dom of speech. Penn always refused to obey such 
laws. Once he said, ''My prison shall be my grave 
before I will budge one jot. I owe my conscience to 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 



329 



no mortal man." William Penn was a wise and prudent 
man, and in a few years he became one of the fore- 
most leaders of the Quakers in England. 

How William Penn Founded Pennsylvania. — For 
years William Penn had been thinking of a settlement 
in America in 
which persecuted 
English Quakers 
could live in peace. 
Charles II owed 
Admiral Penn six- 
teen thousand 
pounds, and when 
the admiral died 
his son William 
inherited this claim 
along with the rest 
of his father's es- 
tate. Knowing 
that there was 
little hope that the 
king would ever 
pay this debt in' 
money, William Penn offered to take land in America 
instead. The king accepted this suggestion, and in 
1681 gave Penn the land between New York and 
Maryland and extending westward five degrees of 
longitude, from the Delaware River. The king 
named this great district Pennsylvania in honor of 
Admiral Penn. 

William Penn desired to control the Delaware River 
to its mouth. So he asked the duke of York to give 




In State Capitol of 
WILLIAM PENN 
Proprietor of Pennsylvania. 



Pennsylvania 



330 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

him the country now included in the state of Delaware. 
The duke did this, and for a time the three Lower 
Counties on the Delaware, as they were called, were a 
part of Pennsylvania. About twenty years later 
Delaware was made a separate province, but the Penn 
family owned both Pennsylvania and Delaware until 
the Revolution. 

There were a few Swedish, Dutch, and English 
settlers in Pennsylvania when it was granted to Penn. 
In October, 1682, William Penn landed at the old 




University Mtiseum, Phiia. 
A WAIMPUM BELT 
The first Penn Treaty belt. 

Swedish settlement of Upland, which he renamed 
Chester. The same year he founded the city of 
Philadelphia at the junction of the Delaware and 
Schuylkill rivers. He treated the Indians justly and 
made a treaty of friendship with them which was 
^^never sworn to and never broken." For two years 
Penn was very busy in organizing his colony. Then 
his business interests made it necessary for him to 
return to England, where most of the remainder of 
his life was spent. He visited Pennsylvania a second 
time in 1699. 

When Penn made it possible for the persecuted 
English Quakers to make new homes in a free land 
beyond the sea, many of them came to America. In 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 331 

1682 nearly three thousand settlers came to Penn- 
sylvania, and the following year the number was even 
larger. A considerable number of English, Welsh, and 
Irish Quakers continued to come to Penn's colony 
until about 1700. After that time most of the new- 
comers to Pennsylvania were of other races and other 
religious faiths. 

Pioneers and Pioneer Life in Pennsylvania. — Many 
of the pioneers of Pennsylvania came from Germany. 
These German colonists fled from religious persecution, 
and from a country which had been almost ruined by 
the waste of war. The Quakers remained in Philadel- 
phia or on farms in the country along the Delaware 
River. The Germans, commonly known as the Penn- 
sylvania Dutch, settled in the fertile limestone valleys 
just west of the Quaker counties. 

A httle later the Scotch-Irish came to Pennsylvania 
in large numbers. The Scotch-Irish were the descend- 
ants of Scotch people who had settled in the north of 
Ireland early in the seventeenth century. At first 
they had prospered in Ireland, but now they were glad 
to come to America to escape the heavy taxes laid 
upon their industries by the English government. 
Most of the Scotch-Irish pushed westward beyond the 
districts occupied by the Quakers and the Germans. 
They were fond of the life on the frontier, and furnished 
many of the pioneers, not only in western Pennsylvania 
but in the states west and south of that colony. 

In the main the early Quaker settlers in Pennsyl- 
vania were well-to-do people who brought considerable 
property with them to the New World. There was 
little of the suffering and hardship in Pennsylvania 



332 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



which we saw in the earher colonies of Virginia and New 
England. As a rule the German colonists were poor, 
but they were industrious and frugal, and soon their 
farms were the best in the state. The Pennsylvania 
Germans clung tenaciously to the language and the 
customs of their fatherland. The Quakers and the 




PENN'S FIRST RESIDENCE IN AMERICA 
This house was moved from the city street to Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. 

Germans alike were lovers of peace. The Scotch-Irish 
frontiersmen on the other hand were a race of fighters, 
and did most of the Indian fighting which finally drove 
the red men beyond the borders of Pennsylvania. 

William Penn gave the settlers in Pennsylvania the 
right to govern themselves. In the first letter which 
he wrote to the people in his colony he said, ^'You 
shall be governed by laws of your own making, and 
live a free and, if you will, a sober, industrious people.'' 



SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 333 

The ideals of William Penn and of the Quakers have 
had a great influence upon the life in Pennsylvania 
even down to the present time. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Why were no English colonies planted in America between 1640 
and 1660? 

2. In what ways did Charles II promote American colonization? 

3. How do North Carohna and South Carolina differ in their geog- 
raphy? In what ways did this difference influence their history? 

4. Why were the inmates of debtors' prisons in England poor mate- 
rial out of which to make successful colonists in America? 

5. What special geographical advantages has New York City? 

6. What is a Quaker? What influence have the Quakers had upon 
American life? 

7. Decide upon the six most important dates in the history of the 
English colonies in America and then learn these dates. 

8. Make a list of all the European countries beside England which 
sent settlers to the EngMsh colonies in America. 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Thwaites: The Colonies. 

Fiske : The Dutch and Quaker Colonies. 

Andrews: Colonial Self -Government. 

Channing: History of the United States, Volumes I, II. 

Sharpless : Two Centuries of Pennsylvania History. 

Pennypacker : Pennsylvania . 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Allen : North Carolina History Stories. 

McCorkle: Old Time Stories of the Old North State. 

Means: Palmetto Stories. ^ 

Harris: Stories of Georgia. * 

WilHams : Stories from Early Neiv York History. 

Hodges: William Penn. 

Stockton : Stories of New Jersey. 

Walton and Brumbaugh : Stories of Pennsylvania, 

Burnham : A Short History of Pennsylvania. 

Thomas: A History of Pennsylvania, 



CHAPTER XIX 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 




EARLY COLONISTS BUILDING 
A HOUSE 



Making a Living in the Colonies. — The first settlers 
in the English colonies in America came to a country 
in which fertile land could be had almost for the asking. 
The pioneer with very little money could quickly get a 
living for himself and his family. He began by clear- 
ing a patch of land for corn 
and a garden, and building 
a rude log home. If he had 
any neighbors they would 
help him build his home. 
At first he lived like the 
Indian, on the game which 
he shot in the forest and 
the fish which he caught in the sea or in a nearby 
river. Soon he began to gather the crops on his 
own land. In two or three years, when he had 
cleared more land and was raising a few hogs and 
cattle, his living was secure. If he had a large family, 
so much the better, for the children could help with 
the work. 

The greater part of the settlers in the English colonies 
had been farmers in their mother countries, and it was 
natural that they should bring with them to the New 
World the grains, fruits, vegetables, and domestic 
animals which they had raised in their old homes, 

(334) 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 335 

Wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, beans, cabbages, onions, 
and apples were the principal cultivated plants of Great 
Britain when Englishmen began to settle in America. 
All these plants were brought to the New World by the 
early settlers. Maize or Indian corn, the potato, both 
white and sweet, the pumpkin, squash, and tobacco 
are native American plants which the pioneers soon 
learned to cultivate. Our common domestic animals. 




AN EXAMPLE OF AN OLD-TIME PLOW 

cattle, horses, swine, sheep, and poultry, all came to us 
from Europe. The turkey alone is a native of the 
western continent. 

Our modern agricultural machinery had not yet been 
invented in colonial days. Plows, harrows, and carts 
were then the only farm implements drawn by horses 
or oxen. The crude and heavy plows had mold- 
boards of wood. The colonists had rude spades, hoes, 
and wooden forks. Hay was cut with the scythe and 
grain with the sickle. The grain was usually threshed 
with a flail, though in the southern colonies it was 
sometimes trodden out on a hard threshing floor by 



336 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

the feet of oxen or horses. Both of these ways of 
threshing are older than history. 

Nearly all the farms in New England and the middle 
colonies and many of those in the south were small. 
Each of these farms was worked by its owner with the 



I 




A COLONIAL HOUSEWIFE SPINNING 

help of his boys and of an occasional slave or servant. 
Corn, wheat, rye, oats, and buckwheat were the chief 
crops. In those parts of Maryland and Virginia where 
tobacco was extensively grown and in the rice swamps 
on the coast of Carolina the plantations were very 
much larger and were cultivated by the labor of 
indentured servants and negro slaves. Nearly 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 337 

everywhere wool, flax, and hemp were raised for 
home use. 

In the early colonial days, when almost every man 
was a farmer, every farmer was a jack of all trades. 
He hunted and fished not simply as a sport, but also 
as a means of procuring a needed supply of food. He 
trapped the fur-bearing animals because furs were in 
great demand and found a ready sale for money or for 
supplies. He was often a lumberman. During many 
a long winter evening, while the women spun or wove, 
the men and boys made staves and shingles before the 
great fireplace in the kitchen. The successful pioneer 
must be able to turn his hand to almost any kind of 
work. 

The colonial home was a hive of industry. In it all 
the food of the family was prepared and nearly all of 
its clothing was made from homespun cloth. The set- 
tler was his own carpenter, blacksmith, and tanner, 
and sometimes his own shoemaker. Every housewife 
could spin and weave and could make such necessary 
articles as soap and candles. 

In addition to all these household industries, the 
colonists early began to manufacture goods outside 
the home for sale in the market or for export to Eng- 
land. This colonial manufacturing was on a small 
scale and most of its products were sold in the neigh- 
borhood where they were made. There were local 
gristmills, sawmills, and brickyards, and shops in 
which leather was converted into gloves, boots, and 
harness. Presently iron ore began to be smelted and 
made into tools, farming implements, and household 
utensils. The village cabinetmaker supplied the 

22 



338 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

neighborhood with furniture, and the local wheel- 
wright made the needed carts and wagons. The pine 
forests of the South yielded tar, pitch, and turpentine, 

and the distilleries of 

New England made 
rum from molasses im- 
ported from the West 
Indies. 

As early as 1631 

John Winthrop, of 

Massachusetts, built 

a ship which he 

named The Blessing 

of the Bay. This was 

the beginning of the shipbuilding industry in New 

England. The materials for this industry were near 

at hand. Planks of oak, and tall, straight masts 




AN OLD COLONIAL SAWMILL 




Essex Institute 
A COLONIAL SHIPYARD AT SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 

of fir were easily procured in the neighboring forests, 
while pitch pine for the making of tar and turpentine 
was everywhere. Ropes were made from home-grown 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 339 

hemp. Ship building grew to be the leading manu- 
facturing industry of the colonies. Some ships were 
built on the Hudson and the Delaware, but most of 
them came from the shipyards of New England. 

The commerce of the colonies began with the 
Indians. The red men were eager to exchange the 
rich fur of the beaver for beads, trinkets, and blankets, 
and with even greater readiness for firearms, gun- 
powder, and rum. Very early the colonists began to 
trade with each other along the coast. They sold corn, 
salt pork, and other supplies at the fishing stations on 
the northern coast and exchanged the hay, hve stock, 
shoes, and woolen cloth of New England for the tobacco 
and wheat of Virginia, the tar and timber of North 
Carolina, and the rice of South Carolina. 

Every year many men and boys from the New 
England settlements fished along the coast or on the 
Banks of Newfoundland. This industry gave New 
England her greatest source of wealth and at the 
same time trained the most daring sailors in the world. 
Presently these sailors carried on the business of whale 
fishing with great success. Dried fish were taken to 
the West Indies where they were exchanged for sugar, 
molasses, and other tropical products. Sometimes they 
were carried to Spain and Portugal and traded for the 
wines and dried fruits of these countries. 

The furs, timber, whale oil, tobacco, rice, and farm 
products of the colonies found a ready market in the 
Old World, where they were paid for with the manu- 
factured goods of England and Holland and the spices 
of the Far East. Very early in the history of the 
colonies the English government required all the 



340 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

trade to be carried on in English or colonial ships 
and mainly through the English ports. 

In the course of time, the traders of New England 
came to play a large part in the slave trade with Africa. 
Rum made in New England from molasses bought in 
the West Indies was exchanged on the African coast 
for captive negroes. These poor wretches were then 
carried to the West Indies and traded for sugar and 
molasses, or to Virginia where they were sold for 
tobacco. The northern trader and the southern planter 
were alike responsible for bringing negro slavery into 
our country. 

The Colonists at Home. — The life of the early 
colonists was one of hard work. The land had to be 
cleared and cultivated, houses and barns built, and 
almost every necessity of life made at home. At first 
nearly every one was poor, but in time labor brought 
its reward, and those settlers who were industrious and 
thrifty came to have good homes of their own. Nearly 
all the people were farmers who owned the farms 
which they tilled. The hardworking farmers, together 
with a few busy shopkeepers and skilled mechanics in 
the towns, made up the great middle class of the 
population. 

The planters of Virginia and South Carolina, the 
patroons on the Hudson, and the rich merchants of 
Boston, Philadelphia, and New York were somewhat 
above the great middle class of the colonists in a social 
sense. They lived in fine houses, were waited upon by 
many servants and slaves, and enjoyed such luxuries 
as the times afforded. At the lower end of the social 
scale were those settlers who were too shiftless and 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 



341 




THE CHEW HOUSE 
'A colonial mansion in Germantown, Phila- 
delphia. 



lazy to succeed in 
life, the indentured 
servants, and the 
negro slaves. There 
were slaves in all the 
colonies though they 
were far more nu- 
merous in the South 
than in the North. 

The first home of 
the colonist in Amer- 
ica was a rude log 
cabin. As the settlers were constantly finding their 
way farther and farther into the interior of the 

country, there was 
during the whole co- 
lonial period of our 
history, and almost to 
the present time for 
that matter, a frontier 
in the backwoods, 
where the people lived 
in log houses very 
much hke the one in 
this picture. As the 
settlements grew older 
and more prosperous, 
better houses of wood, 

A LOG CABIN ON THE FRONTIER g^^^J SOmctimCS of 

brick or stone, replaced the log cabins of the pioneers. 
In the course of time orchards, fields of grain, and 
pastures with their herds of cattle made their appear- 




342 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 



ance around the homes of the colonists. Some of the 
great planters in the southern colonies built spacious 
mansions which were very much like the beautiful 
homes they had left behind them in England. Near 
the house of the wealthy Virginia planter there were 
numerous outbuildings in which the various indus- 



'Ill ' ^__^^^^^52!BB^^^^^^ 



JBIifci, 




ifiiip'pi'11511 



\llunT 

3 







A COLONIAL KITCHEN 



Co-pr. TJie Essex Institute 



tries of the plantation were carried on, and quarters 
in which its many slaves were sheltered. 

Home life in colonial days centered about the great 
fireplace with its blazing logs. On the long winter 
evenings all the members of the family gathered before 
it for warmth and Hght. Tallow candles and, later, 
lamps in which whale oil was burned helped to light 
up the darkness. Stools, benches, tables, and other 
articles of furniture were very plain and were usually 
homemade. Sometimes there would be a few finer 
pieces brought from the old home in England. By 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 343 

and by those colonists who could afford them had 
china, glassware, silver, fine linen, and furniture from 
the Old World. 

The home farm produced nearly everything that the 
colonists ate or wore. In the summer its cornfield 
furnished delicious roasting ears of green corn, and all 
the year porridge, puddings, and bread were made of 
cornmeal from the ripened grain. Most of the early 
settlers could catch fish, and after the first years of 
hardship were over they raised their own pork and 
beef. As time passed, an orchard like that of the old 
home in England provided apples and plenty of cider 
which was a common drink in colonial times. Some- 
times wild honey was found and in many parts of the 
country toothsome maple sugar was made. The 
clothing of most of the people came from wool, flax, 
and leather grown on their own land and manufactured 
in their own homes. 

The daily life of the colonist was one of hard work, 
and he had few of the opportunities for sport and 
amusement which we now enjoy. Still, his life was 
not an unceasing round of toil. The deer, wild turkeys, 
and other game in the forests furnished some of the 
finest hunting in the world. Sometimes shooting 
matches were held, and it was thought a great honor 
to be the best marksman in the neighborhood. In 
some of the colonies horse racing, cock fighting, and 
other old English sports and games were not uncom- 
mon, but these amusements were frowned upon by 
the Puritans of New England. 

Our colonial ancestors were far more neighborly 
and hospitable than we are today. In time of sickness 



344 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

they cheerfully did for each other the work which is 
now done by professional nurses. People who lived 
near together helped each other in clearing land, in 



IN THE GARDEN OF A FINE OLD COLONIAL HOME IN VIRGINIA 

harvesting and corn husking, and at quiltings and 
barn raisings. These gatherings of neighbors to work 
together were called ''bees," and were social events 
which were enjoyed to the full, especially by the 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 



345 



young people. In the South travelers were freely 
entertamed at the homes of the great planters. The 
weddings were joyous occasions at which there was a 
great deal of gaiety and rough sport, and even the 
funerals were occasions for much feasting. 

The early American settler seldom traveled far from 
home. The roads were few and very bad, the inns 




In Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. 
A TWO-WHEELED CHAISE 
The chaise was a carriage used by the colonists. 



were poor, there were few bridges over the rivers, and 
a long journey was a serious and often a dangerous 
adventure. When a man was obliged to travel a 
considerable distance from home, he went on horse- 
back or by boat on the rivers and along the sea coast. 
It was a long time after the colonies were founded before 
stage-coaches ran between even the large towns. In 
the home neighborhood people walked to church or 
rode on horseback or in a two-wheeled chaise. 
How the Colonies Were Governed. — The early 



346 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

English colonists brought with them to the New World 
the ideas about government with which they were 
familiar in their mother country. In England the 
laws were made by Parliament and enforced by the 
king. Parliament consisted of a House of Lords most 
of whose members inherited their positions and a House 
of Commons chosen by the people. Then there were 
courts with judges and juries who tried men accused 
of crime and settled disputes between man and man. 

A form of government very much like that of Eng- 
land was set up in each of the colonies. Every one of 
them had a law-making body in which the members 
of one house at least were elected by the people. In 
most of the colonies a man could not vote for these 
law-makers unless he owned land. Each colony had 
a governor who enforced the law. In most of the 
colonies the governor was appointed by the king of 
England. In Pennsylvania and Maryland the gover- 
nor was named by the proprietor, while in Connecticut 
and Rhode Island, and for a long time in Massachusetts, 
he was chosen by the people. Many of the colonial 
governors who were sent from England were needy 
and greedy men with whom the colonists had a great 
deal of trouble. Each colony had courts with judges 
and juries, very much as in England. 

We are more democratic than our colonial ancestors 
were, and the governors and law-makers in all our 
states, and the judges in most of them, are now elected 
by the people. But in many respects our state govern- 
ments are like the governments of the colonies, and in 
some ways they resemble the government of England 
from which so many of the colonists came. 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 347 

In New England, where the farms were small and 
the settlers lived near together, often in little villages, 
the people of each community held a town meeting 
which made the laws or rules for the township and 
elected local officers to enforce them. In the South, 
where the plantations were large and the people 
widely scattered, it was not convenient to hold town 
meetings. In that section local affairs were looked 
after by justices of the peace, appointed by the governor 
of the colony. In the middle colonies part of the 
local business was done by county officers and part of 
it by township officers. All of these ways of managing 
local affairs were known in England before the dis- 
covery of America, and all of them are found in the 
United States at the present time. 

Before the first settlers came to America the people 
of England had won the right to have their lives and 
property protected by the government, to have a fair 
trial by a jury when accused of crime, to move freely 
about the country, and to follow any occupation they 
pleased. They had also established their right to 
take part in the management of their local affairs and 
to be free from taxes that were not voted by their 
own representatives. The colonists believed that 
they brought with them to America all these rights of 
Englishmen. In the course of time they declared their 
independence of England in order to maintain these 
rights which are still among our most cherished 
possessions. 

The colonists also brought to the New World many 
of the brutal punishments that were common in the 
England of their day. Men were punished with death 



348 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 




A MAN SITTING IN THE 
STOCKS 



t- \.-" 



for many crimes, while for 
lesser offenses they were 
flogged at the whipping post 
or forced to sit in the stocks 
or stand in the pillory. We 
have long since stopped using 
these cruel and shameful 
penalties. 

The English Language in 
America. — The early settlers 
in America were so busy at 
their heavy task of clearing 

away the forests and making homes in a new land 

that most of them had little^ time for books or educa- 
tion. Still, some of 

them were educated 

men who brought the 

learning of the Old 

World with them and 

did what they could to 

keep it alive in the 

wilderness of America. 

For a long time the. 

colonists had only such 

books as were brought 

from England, and even 

these were rare and 

very expensive. 

The use of the Eng- 

lish language was 

common to nearly all 

the colonists, though 



\¥ 







J}L%^^^i^SL 



Essex Institute 
MAN STANDING IN THE PILLORY 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 349 

where the Germans settled in large number, as in 
Pennsylvania, they kept the speech of their father- 
land. The settlers soon began to add to the language 
which they had brought from England by making 
names for things in America which were new to them. 
The color of one bird suggested blackbird, and the 
song of another made them call it the mocking bird. 
From the language of their Indian neighbors they 
borrowed such words as tobacco, hominy, canoe, and 
chipmunk. 

The colonization of America added a large number 
of new place names to the English language. Very 
often the pioneers named their settlements after 
towns in England as, for example, Plymouth, Boston, 
or Chester. Occasionally they tried to honor the 
kings of their home land by inventing such names as 
Jamestown, Carolina, and Georgia. Sometimes the 
rivers were named after Englishmen, as the Hudson or 
the Delaware, but oftener they kept their native 
Indian names, like the Mohawk, the Susquehanna, or 
the Potomac. In Massachusetts and Connecticut the 
settlers borrowed Indian names for the colonies. 

The First American Schools and Colleges. — The 
Puritans of New England led in the work of opening 
public schools in America. One of the early laws of 
Massachusetts ordered that every township, as soon as 
it had fifty householders, ''shall appoint one within 
their town to teach all such children as shall resort 
to him, to write and read." The same law provided 
that when a town contained one hundred families it 
must set up a grammar school, with a master ''able to 
instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the 



350 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

university. '^ The other New England colonies fol- 
lowed the example of Massachusetts in establishing 
public schools. 

Outside of New England there were no free public 
schools in the colonies. There were a few excellent 
private schools in some of the larger towns like New 
York and Philadelphia, and in many places the English 




Essex Institute 
AN OLD NEW ENGLAND SCHOOLHOUSE 
The schoolhouse is the small building at the right of the picture. In front of it 
stands the whipping post. 



and German ministers taught the children of their 
congregations. Some of the wealthy planters in the 
South employed tutors to teach their boys and girls 
in their own homes. But the greater part of the 
children in the middle and southern colonies had very 
little opportunity to go to school. 

Before the settlement at Boston was six years old 
Massachusetts took steps to establish a college in the 
colony. This first college in America was named 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 



351 



Harvard after John Harvard, a Puritan minister who 
gave it one-half of his estate and all of his library. 
For a long time Harvard was the only college in the 
English colonies. Later others were started, and 
before the colonies declared their independence of 
England every one of them north of Maryland and 
Delaware had a college within its borders. The 
College of William and Mary in Virginia was the only 
one in the southern colonies. Sometimes the southern 




WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE 

This was the first college in Virginia. 

planter sent his sons to one of the colleges in the 
north or to one of the great universities in England. 
The earliest American colleges were established to 
educate ministers for the church. Boys who wanted 
to be doctors or lawyers did not attend medical colleges 
or law schools as they do now, but studied in the 
offices of neighboring physicians or lawyers. 

Early American Printing. — The first printing press 
ever brought to the English colonies in America was 
set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638. Other 
presses came later, but for a long time they printed 



352 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

little except almanacs, religious books like the ^'Bay 
Psalm Book/' and school books for children like the 
"New England Primer." There was no American 
newspaper until the Boston News Letter appeared in 
1704. The Pennsylvania Packet j published in Phila- 
delphia, was the first daily paper in the colonies. 

Many of the governors whom the king of England 
sent to his colonies in America did not look with favor 
upon education or a free press. Governor Berkeley of 
Virginia, speaking of that colony in 1671, said: "I 
thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and 
I hope we shall not have these hundred years." Peter 
Zenger, a New York editor, was thrown into prison 
because he dared to criticise the governor of that 
colony. When Zenger was brought to trial, Andrew 
Hamilton, a famous Quaker lawyer from Philadelphia, 
secured his acquittal in a great speech in which he 
declared: "It is not the cause of a poor printer, nor 
of New York alone, which the jury is now trying. It 
is the cause of liberty." 

The Religion and Morals of the Colonists. — The 
early colonists were a very religious people. Many of 
them had come to America because they were not 
free to worship God in their own way at home. They 
found it no easier in America to agree among 
themselves about religion. Their differences of opinion 
in this matter led to the introduction into the colonies 
of many sects or religious denominations. The 
Puritans of New England were Congregationalists. 
There were Catholics in Maryland, Baptists in Rhode 
Island and North Carolina, and many Quakers in New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania. The Scotch and Scotch- 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 



353 



Irish were Presbyterians and there were many differing 
sects among the German settlers in Pennsylvania. 

Most of the colonists in Virginia and many of them 
in some of the other colonies belonged to the Church of 
England, and sooner or later that church was estab- 
lished by law in all the colonies south of New England 
except Pennsylvania and Delaware. In most of the 




PURITANS GOING TO CHURCH 
They carried guns to defend themselves against Indians. 

colonies the people did not want the members of other 
sects to live among them. The Episcopalians in Vir- 
ginia drove Puritans and Baptists away from the 
colony. The Puritans in Massachusetts shamefully 
persecuted the Quakers. Maryland, Rhode Island, and 
Pennsylvania, however, were leaders in religious 
toleration, and in time the people of the other colonies 
learned that it was best not to quarrel over differences 
in religion. The presence of so many different religious 
sects in the colonies helped to bring about this result. 

23 



354 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

Going to church in colonial times was a very dif- 
ferent matter from what it is with us. In the South, 
where the plantations were widely scattered, the 
churches were often a long distance apart and some of 
the people had to travel many miles to reach them. 
Bad weather and poor roads frequently made it almost 
impossible to go. In New England where there 
was a meeting house in every town, the Puritan 
expected every one to be present at the services and 
punished any who did not come. The Puritan church 
service would seem very tedious to us. The prayer 
was an hour long, and frequently the sermon lasted 
for twice that time. There was no way of heating the 
meeting house in winter, and attendance during that 
season must have been a real hardship. In the early 
colonial days the women sometimes carried heated 
stones in their muff s to keep their hands from freezing 
in church, and later they used little charcoal foot-stoves. 

The colonists brought from the Old World many 
strange ideas and notions, which we now call super- 
stitions. They thought, for example, that the right 
time to sow seed and to harvest crops was determined 
by the phases of the moon. Any unusual sight in the 
heavens like a comet was a sign of ill luck. They 
believed in ghosts and were sure that certain houses 
were haunted by them. One of the strangest of these 
superstitions was the belief in witchcraft. A witch 
was a person, usually an old woman, who was believed 
to be possessed by an evil spirit. The people thought 
that witches could fly through the air and that they 
had the power to bring all sorts of evil upon their 
enemies. When the butter was slow in coming in the 



LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 355 

churn, it was because some one had bewitched the 
cream. The behef in witchcraft had long been com- 
mon in Europe and great numbers of people had been 
put to death there as witches. In 1692 there was a 
panic about witches in Salem, Massachusetts, and 
before it passed, twenty innocent people were executed. 
As people have learned more about nature, these old 
superstitions have gradually disappeared, though it is 
still possible to find folks who believe in lucky signs or 
unlucky days and who think that potatoes ought to 
be planted in the right phase of the moon. 

The habits and morals as well as the knowledge and 
the ideas of the early settlers in America were those 
which then prevailed in the mother countries from 
which they came. They were ignorant of much that 
we know, and xnsary of the things which they did 
would seem very coarse or brutal to us. But they were 
a fearless, hard-working, and resolute race of men and 
women, and they built broad and deep the foundation 
for the civilization which has since developed in our 
country. We have good reason to be proud of our 
colonial ancestors. 



QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. What grains, vegetables, and fruits do we have that were not 
grown by the early colonists? 

2. What tools and machinery found on our farms now were unknown 
to our colonial ancestors? 

3. What fur-bearing animals are still found in the United States? 

4. Point out all the differences that you can between manufacturing 
in colonial times and at the present day. 

5. Do we have social classes hke those described in the section on 
"The Colonists at Home."? 

6. Did you ever see a log cabin? How is it built? 



356 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

7. How does our home life today differ from the home life of our 
colonial forefathers? 

8. What features of our government were brought to this country 
by the English colonists? 

9. Find out the origins of the names of your state, county, town- 
ship, or city. Are there any places in your vicinity with Indian names? 

10. Why are we less superstitious than our colonial ancestors were? 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER 

Lodge: A Short History of the English Colonies in America. 

Coman : Industrial History of the United States, Chapters I-IV. 

Bogart: Economic History of the United States, Part I. 

Eggleston: The Transit of Civilization. 

Sparks: Expansion of the American People, Chapters IV-V. 

Earle: Home Life in Colonial Days; Child Life in Colonial Days. 

Fisher: Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial Times. 

Greene: Provincial America. 

Weeden: Social and Economical History of New England. 

Bruce : Social Life in Virginia in the Seveiiteenth Century. 

BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN 

Bassett: The Plain Story of American History, Chapter VI. 

Mace: School History of the United States, 95-117. 

Hart: Colonial Children; How Our Grandfathers Lived. 

Tappan : Letters from Colonial Children. 

Stone and Fickett: Everyday Life in the Colonies. 

CofRn: Old Times in the Colonies. 

Jenks: When America was Young. 



CHAPTER XX 
OUR HERITAGE AND OUR HISTORY 

What We Inherited from the Old World.— We have 
now reached the end of the story of how civihzation 
grew in the Old World and was brought from Europe 
to America by the early settlers. It took many 
thousand years for our ancestors to win their w^ay from 
their first savage condition to the civilized ways of 
living of our colonial forefathers. The story of their 
long upward struggle from barbarism to civilization 
is a part of our history. Let us look once more at its 
chief features. 

We are indebted to men who lived so long ago that 
we have no written record of their lives for many of 
the most valuable things that we now possess. Long 
ages ago primitive men kindled the first fires, built the 
first houses, tamed the wild animals, and began the 
cultivation of the food plants. These early men 
invented the first weapons and tools and were the 
first workers in wood, stone, leather, and the metals. 
Their wives and daughters were the earliest potters, 
weavers, and millers. To that same far-away time, 
before the dawn of histor}^, belong the formation of 
languages, the origin of the family, and many rude 
beginnings in science, art, and religion. 

The first civilized people lived in the valleys of the 
Nile and the Euphrates and in the lands about the 

(357) 



358 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. In these 
fertile valleys agriculture was highly developed and 
such arts as spinning and weaving were brought to 
perfection. There were cities filled with skilled 
workers in leather, glass, copper, bronze, and gold. 
Commerce sprang up, and the sea-going Phoenicians 
carried the rich wares of the civilized East to all parts 
of the Mediterranean world. In these eastern lands 
the first states were formed, the earliest governments 
were organized, and the oldest laws were written. 
The Egyptians and the Babylonians, the earliest 
civilized peoples, gave us the art of writing, the 
alphabet, our way of reckoning time, many of our 
common weights and measures, and important lessons 
in mathematics, and in literature. We are indebted 
to the Hebrews for most of our religious ideas. 

The Greeks next caught up the torch of civilization 
and carried it far in advance of the point reached by 
the Egyptians and the Babylonians. The Greeks 
were the first free, self-governing people in the world, 
and the founders of the earliest democratic states in 
history. In a long and heroic war with Persia they 
saved freedom in Europe from the despotism of Asia. 
The Greeks were lovers of the beautiful. They carved 
the finest statues and built the most beautiful temples 
of all time. They gave the world a priceless literature 
which is the delight of men at the present day. Finally, 
the conquests of Alexander the Great carried the 
splendid civlization of the Greeks to all parts of the 
eastern world. 

Later the Romans conquered the Greeks and nearly 
all the known world of their time. Their empire 



OUR HERITAGE AND OUR HISTORY 359 

included southern and western Europe, western Asia, 
and the northern coast of Africa. They gave this vast 
region a common language and bound it together with 
splendid roads all leading to Rome. They gave the 
people of their empire peace, orderly government, and 
wise laws. We owe many of our best ideas about law 
and government to them. The Romans carried the 
art, the literature, and the wisdom of the Greeks to all 
the countries of the West. They introduced and 
developed civilized ways of living among the barbarous 
peoples of western Europe, and defended these people 
from the German tribes until these ways were firmly 
established among them. 

L^; Jesus was born during the reign of the first Roman 
emperor. He was the world's greatest teacher and 
gave us a lofty ideal of a pure and sinless life. He 
taught that all men are brothers and that they ought 
to love one another. The teachings of Jesus have 
done much to promote democracy in the world and to 
make men more gentle and more humane. The 
followers of Jesus organized the Christian Church. 
The church played a leading part in civilizing the bar- 
barians who overthrew the Roman Empire and has 
taught the Christian faith and the Christian Hfe even 
down to the present day. 

About a thousand years before the discovery of 
America the German barbarians from beyond the 
Danube and the Rhine overran the Roman Empire. 
The gradual fusion of these German tribes with the 
inhabitants of the empire among whom they settled 
gave rise to the various peoples of modern Europe, like 
the French, the Spanish, and the Italians. The Ger- 



360 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

manic tribes, the ancestors of most of the peoples 
who settled America, overthrew the empire of Rome 
and filled western Europe with fresh blood and youth- 
ful vigor. They were a proud, free people, and we 
are indebted to them for our love of liberty, for the 
idea of representative government, and for other 
important political ideas and institutions. 

The Angles and Saxons were German tribes which 
settled on the island of Britain. With the help of the 
native Britons, and of the Danes and conquering 
Normans who came later, they were the makers of 
England. In the course of time all these people were 
fused together to form the English race. They all 
helped to make the English language, to develop the 
English ways of working and living, and to establish 
in England such rights as those of trial by jury and of 
being represented in the law-raaking body or Par- 
liament. After a while England, Scotland, Wales, and 
Ireland were joined together to form the kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland. This kingdom was the 
mother country of most of our colonial ancestors, and 
it was natural for them to bring to America the ways 
of living, the ideas, and the political institutions which 
they knew in their Old World homes. 

We call the time between the fall of the Roman 
Empire in the fifth century and the discovery of 
America in the fifteenth century the Middle Ages. 
In the earlier part of this period, because of the incom- 
ing of the German barbarians, Europe was much less 
civilized than it had been in the best days of the 
Roman Empire. All this time the Germans were 
learning civilized ways from the Romans- among whom 



OUR HERITAGE AND OUR HISTORY 361 

they lived. The church had great influence in this 
period and did much to keep alive the ancient civiliza- 
tion and hand it on to the modern world. It was 
during the Middle Ages that feudalism grew and 
flourished and that knighthood was in flower. The 
nobles lived in great stone castles and the common 
people toiled for them upon the land. 

In the later Middle Ages great changes took place 
in Europe. Commerce with the East sprang up, the 
cities grew rapidly in size and number, and new indus- 
tries were introduced. These changes were quickened 
by the crusades, which brought many of the people 
of western Europe into contact with the more highly 
civilized Greeks and Arabs in the East. From the 
time of the crusades feudalism and serfdom began to 
disappear slowly, and such nations as Spain, France, 
and England grew strong. These nations were to 
be leaders and rivals in exploring and colonizing 
America. 

As the Middle Ages drew to a close, Europe was 
throbbing with new life, energy, and enthusiasm. The 
splendid literature of Greece and Rome which had 
been long neglected was now studied once more. 
Great inventions like gunpowder, the mariner's com- 
pass, and the art of printing were coming into use. 
New ideas about education, science, and religion were 
in the air. The greatest ' artists since the days of 
ancient Athens were at work. We call this wonderful 
revival of civilization in Europe the Renaissance. Just 
at its height, America was found. 

What Our People Have Done in the New World.— 
The men who brought the civilization of Europe to 



362 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

the shores of America were the heirs of all the past. 
The New World was to profit by all that the Old 
World had learned since early men took the first steps 
toward civilized ways of living. The story of the slow 
and patient advance from the poverty, ignorance, and 
superstition of primitive life to the civilization of 
Europe in the time of the Renaissance is a part of our 
history. The men and women who won this civiliza- 
tion for the world were our ancestors. 

But the story of our inheritance from the Old World 
is far from being all of our history. Our ancestors 
brought civilization to the shores of America but it has 
had a marvelous growth in the New World. Since 
the colonial days our people have pushed through the 
gateways of the Allegheny Mountains, occupied the 
great valley of the Mississippi, and followed the long 
trails to the rich country on the Pacific coast. The 
thirteen colonies have increased to forty-eight states. 
The handful of colonists along the Atlantic coast has 
grown to more than one hundred million American 
citizens. 

The toil of many generations of pioneers has cleared 
our land of forests and clothed it with gardens, orchards, 
and fields of wheat, corn, and cotton. The cattle and 
sheep upon a thousand hills are ours. The mountains 
have given us their coal and iron and copper. Inven- 
tions almost without number have lightened our labor 
and enormously increased our wealth. Hundreds of 
thousands of miles of railroad bind our country 
together and carry our people and our products from 
place to place. Our land is filled with fertile farms and 
with busy and prosperous towns, while scattered here 



OUR HERITAGE AND OUR HISTORY 363 

and there are scores of great cities, the homes of 
mighty industries and of a rich commerce. 

Our colonial forefathers declared their independence 
of England and won it in a long and trying war. They 
set up free governments in the states and in the nation 
that have endured for more than a century. By 
purchase and conquest our people have vastly increased 
the extent of their territory. By four years of heroic 
fighting in a great civil war they saved the life of the 
nation and freed it from human slavery. The half 
century since this great struggle has seen wonderful 
progress in national growth. Today North and South 
are united in the spirit that makes the United States 
the greatest democratic nation in the world. 

Nor is this all. Education has been made free to 
every one in a great system of public schools. Colleges 
and universities have been built. Newspapers and 
magazines carry the thought of the world to almost 
every home. All men are free to worship God as they 
choose. Provision has been made for the care of the 
sick, the insane, and for all who cannot care for 
themselves. 

All these things have not been done without many 
mistakes and some wrongdoing. There are still many 
evils to be corrected and much good work to be accom- 
plished. But the story of how all these wonderful 
things have been done is our history. It is one of the 
most fascinating stories in the world. We have traced 
the origin and development of civilization in the Old 
World and have seen how it first came to America. 
We are now ready to study its growth in the history 
of our own country. 



364 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 

BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER AND THE CHILDREN 

Elson and MacMuUen: The Story of the Old World. 

Harding: The Story of Europe. 

Nida: The Dawn of American History in Europe. 

Gordy: American Beginnings in Europe. 

Bourne and Benton: Introductory American History. 

Mace and Tanner: The Story of Old Europe and Young America. 

Hall: Our Ancestors in Europe. 



INDEX 



Abbot, 108 
Achilles (a-kll'ez), 69 
Acropolis (a-kr6p'6-lls) , 65-66 
iEgean Sea (S-je'an), 52, 58, 59 
Africa, 1, 26, 33, 52, 116, 118, 194, 
265 
coast of, explored by Portuguese, 
218-221 
Age, Old Stone, 17 
New Stone, 18 
of Bronze, 18 
Alaric (al'a-rik), 115-116 
Albany, 321 

Albemarle, Duke of, 315 
Albemarle settlement, 315-316, 317 
Albemarle Sound, 315 
Alexander the Great, 72-73, 358 
results of his conquests, 73 
fate of his empire, 86 
Alexandria, 73, 212, 218 
Alfred the Great, 135-138, 141 
Alphabet, 38-39 
Alps, 76, 84, 110, 194 
Amadas and Barlowe, 270 
America, 1, 48, 62, 98, 156, 168, 
188, 201, 208, 236 
the discovery of, 222-240 
the naming of, 232-233 
the exploration of, 233-240, 265- 

269 
Spanish settlements in, 242-260 
first attempts at English settle- 
ment in, 269-271 
English colonies in, 278-355 
Americans, 1-7, 124, 126 
Amos, 47 

Amusements, in the colonies, 343 
Angles, 128-131, 134, 360. 
Anglo-Saxons, 128-129 
Animals, domestication of, 11-13 
Antioch (an'tl-6k), 164 
Antwerp, 194 
Apennines, 76 
Apollo (a-p61'6), 67 
Aqueducts, Roman, 97 
Arabia, 28, 32, 118, 194, 209, 212 
Arabs, 118, 119, 165-166 

in Spain, 189-191 
Architecture, in Egypt and Baby- 
lonia, 42-44 



Greek, 63-64 
Roman, 97 

Aristotle (ar'is-t6t"l), 72 
Arithmetic, 41 

Armada (ar-ma'da) , Spanish, 271-277 
Art, earliest, 23 

of the Greeks, 62-67 

of the Romans, 88-89 

of the Renaissance, 202-205 
Asia, 37, 51, 61, 118, 192, 193 

wealth of, 208-212 

search for a westward route to, 
223 230 
Asia Mikor, 58, 73, 86, 101, 162, 164 

conquered by the Turks, 217 
Assyria, 31, 36, 37, 42 
Assyrians, 37, 42 
Astronomy, 41 
Athena (a-the'na), 66, 67 
Athenians, 55-57, 58, 59 

conquered by Macedon, 72 
Athens, 50, 59, 61, 65, 101 
Atlantic Ocean, 127, 222, 223, 234, 

268 
Augustine (6-gus'tIn), missionary to 

England, 131-132, 133 
Austria, 110, 119 
Avalon, 287 
Aztecs (az'teks), 246, 247, 249 

Battle, trial by, 175 
Barcelona, 229 
Bannockburn, battle of, 183 
Baltimore, Lord, see Calvert 
Balhol (bal'I-til), John, 182, 183 
Balboa (bal-bo'a), 233 
Bahamas, 227, 228 
Babylonians, first good farmers, 
29-30 

arts and crafts of, 30-31 

trade of, 32, 34 

early bankers, 34 

social life of, 34-36 

houses of, 35 

writing of, 39 

books of, 40 

architecture of, 41-42 

religious beliefs of, 46 
Babylonia, the land, 26-29 

farming in, 29-30 



(365) 



366 



INDEX 



manufacturing in, 30-31 

trade in, 32 

life in, 34-36 

government in, 36-38 

literature in, 40-41 

science in, 40-41 

buildings in, 41-42 

religion in, 46 

our debt to the, 358 
Babylon, 37,73 
Bergen, 196 
Belgium, 194 
Berkeley, Governor, 352 
Berkeley, Lord John, 326-327 
Bertha, 132 
Bible, 23, 48, 102, 121 

translated into English, 185 
Bishop, in the Middle Ages, 156-157 
Black Death, influence upon Eng- 
land, 170-171 
Black Sea, 32, 52, 192, 194, 213, 214 
Blandina, 105 
Boniface, 122-123 
Books, Babylonian, 40 

of the Romans, 87 

in the monasteries, 159 

printed, 199 
Boston, 307, 309 
Bradford, William, 293, 294 
Brazil, 209, 252, 256 
Brewster, WilHam, 293 
Britain, 33, 126-127, 128, 131 

conquered by Angles and Saxons, 
129-130 
British Islands, 2 

geographv of, 126-127 
Britons, 128, 130 
Bruce, Robert, 182, 183 
Bruges (broo'jez), 194, 196 
Burgundians, 116, 118 
Burlington, 327 

Cabot (kab'ut), John, 230-232, 262 

"Cacafuego, " 267-268 

Cadiz, 273, 276 

Caesar (se'zar), Augustus, 92 
Age of^ 93 

Csesar (se'zar), Julius, 86, 92 

Cairo, 212 

Calais (kal'is), 275 

Calendar, 40-41 

Cahcut, 212 

CaHfornia, 268 

California, Gulf of, 250 

Calvert, Cecilius, second Lord Bal- 
timore, 288 

Calvert, George, Lord Baltimore, 
286-288, 305 

Calvert, Leonard, 288 



Calvin, John, 205-206 
Calvinists, 206 
Canary Islands, 226 
Canterbury, 132, 186 
"Canterbury Tales," 185-186 
Cape Cod, 294 
Cape Fear River, 318 
Cape Horn, 236, 256-257 
Cape Verde, 220 
Cape Verde Islands, 234 
CaroHna, 315-319, 336 
Carteret, Sir George, 326 
Carthage, rival of Rome, 83-86 

destruction of, 85-86 

Vandals at, 116 
Cartier, Jacques (zhak kar-tya'), 278 
Carver, John, 293 
Caspian Sea, 213 
Castles, life in the, 149-152 
Cathay, see China 
Cathedrals, 161-162 
Central America, 230, 236, 250, 252, 

256 
Ceylon, 209, 210 
Champlain (sham-plan'), 278 
Charlemagne (shar'le-man) , 119-120 
Charles, son of Charlemagne, 120 
Charles I, King, 287, 299, 301, 313 
Charles II, King, 308, 313, 314-315, 

324, 326, 329 
Charles Martel (shiirl mar'tgl'), 119 
Charleston, 316, 317, 319 
Chaucer (cho'-ser), 185-186 
Chester, England, 141 
Chester, Pennsylvania, 330 
Children, in early times, 21 
Chile, 252 
China, 27, 208, 209, 210, 213, 232 

visited by Marco Polo, 214-217 
Chinese, the, 4, 196 
Chivalry, see Knighthood 
Chowan River, 315 
Christianity, 119 

German tribes converted to, 121- 
123 

introduced into England, 131-134 

accepted by the Danes, 136 

in Normandy, 142 
Christians, persecuted by the Romans, 

102-105 
Church, beginnings of the, 101-102 

government of the early, 102, 107 

triumph of the, 105-107 

in the Middle Ages, 155-162 

Catholic, 205-207 

Presbyterian, 206, 353 

civilizing influence of, 359 
Church of England, 291-293 
Cincinnatus (sin-sl-na'tus), 81 



INDEX 



367 



City-states, 35-37 
Civilization, defined, 6-7 
Clan, 22, 36 
Clarendon, Earl of, 315 
Clothing, early, 15 

in Egypt and Babylonia, 35-36 

of the Romans, 79, 89-90 

in the Age of Elizabeth, 292 

in the colonies, 337 
Clotilda, 122 
Clovis, 118, 122 
Coliseum, 96 

Colleges, the first American, 350- 
351 

Harvard, 351 

William and Mary, 351 
Colombia, 252 
Colonies, Greek, 52 

Spanish, 241-260 

English, 278-355 
Columbus, Christopher, 188, 238 

early Hfe, 222-223 

his plan to reach Asia, 223 

seeks aid, 223-224 

is outfitted by Spain, 224-225 

first voyage of, 225-227 

discovers land, 227-229 

returns to Spain, 229-230 

later voyages of, 230-231 
Commerce, in Egypt and Babylonia, 
31-32 

of the Phoenicians, 32-34 

Greek, 54 

Roman, 95 

English, in the Middle Ages, 173- 
174 

in the fifteenth century, 192-194 

of Venice, 194 

between the East and the West, 
208-214 

growth of English, 264-265 

of the colonies, 339-340 
Commons, House of, 178 
Compass, the, 198 
Connecticut, 346 

settlements in, 308-311 
Connecticut River, 308, 322, 324 
Constantine, 106 

Constantinople (kon-stan'ti-no'p'l) , 
116, 117, 118, 162, 163, 164, 
165, 193, 201 

taken by the Turks, 217 
Copernicus (ko-pur'-ni-kus) , 199 
Coronado (ko'ro-na'do), explorations 

of, 255-256 
Corsica, 83 
Cortes (kor'tez) , Hernando, conquers 

Mexico, 244-250 
Cromwell, 181, 313-314 



Crusades, 162-165 

influence of the, 165-167 
Cuba, 228, 230, 242, 243, 244 
Cyprus, 33 
Cyrus the Great, 37 

Dale, Sir Thomas, 283 

Danes, in England, 134-137 

Dante (dan'te), 200 

Danube, 110, 111, 114, 115 

Darien, Isthmus of, see Panama 

Darius (da-ri'us), 58, 59 

Davenport, John, 311 

David, 47, 203 

Davis Strait, 268 

Delaware, Swedes settle in, 323-324 

acquired by Penn, 329-330 
Delaware, Lord, 282 
Delaware River, 322, 326, 329, 330 
Demeter (de me'ter) , 67 
Democracy, in Greece, 54 

of Jesus, 100 
Demosthenes (dS-mos'the-nez) , 72 
Denmark, 110, 135, 196 
Dermot, 180 
De Soto, Hernando, the story of, 

253-255 
Diaz (de'as), Bartholomew, 221 
Dover, 307 

Dover, Strait of, 274, 276 
Drake, Francis, 265-269, 271, 272, 

273, 275 
DubHn, 181 
Durer, Albrecht, 204 
Dutch, 124, 264, 272, 278, 330 

East Indies, 212, 233, 234, 239 
East Jersey, 327 
Eaton, The9philus, 311 
Education, in Sparta, 54-55 

in Athens, 56 

at Rome, 87 

Alfred's work for, 137 

in chivalry, 152-155 

of apprentices, 172-173 

influence of the revival of learning 
upon, 201 

in Spanish America, 260 

in the English colonies, 349-351 
Edward. King of England, 143 
Edward I, King of England, 181-183 
Edward II, King of England, 183 
Egbert, 130 
Egypt, the land, 26-29 

farming in, 29-30 

begins manufacturing, 30-31 

trade in, 31-32 

life in, 34-36 

first government in, 35-38 



368 



INDEX 



literature m, 40 

science in, 40-41 

buildings in, 42-44 

religion in, 44-46 

conquered by Alexander, 73 

conquered by Rome, 86 

trade with, 192, 194 

conquered by the Turks, 218 
Egyptians, first good farmers, 29- 
30 

arts and crafts of, 30-31 

trade of, 31-34 

social life of, 34-36 

houses of, 35 

clothing of, 35-36 

alphabet of, 38-39 

architecture of, 42-44 

religious beliefs of, 44-46 

our debt to the, 358 
Elizabeth, Queen, 202, 262-264, 269, 

271 
Endicott, John, 299, 310 
England, 1, 2, 128, 179, 189, 194, 
201, 339, 360 

geography of, 126-127 

conquered by Angles and Saxons, 
129-130 

navy of, 137 

Hfe in early, 138-141 

Norman conquest of, 141-144 

the manor in, 168-170 

Black Death in, 170-171 

commerce of, in the Middle Ages, 
173-174 

trial by jury in, 174-176 

union with Wales and Scotland, 
181-184 

and Spain, 262-265, 271-277 

Revolution in, checks colonization, 
313-314 
English, 124, 360 

the making of the, 126-144 

earhest home of the, 128-129 

conversion of, 131-134 

Norman influence on the, 143-144 

life of the, in the Middle Ages, 
168-174 

interfere in Ireland, 179-181 

rivals of the Spaniards, 262-279 
English Channel, 274-275 
English language, 144 

growth of the, 184-185 

in America, 348-349 
English literature, 134 

earliest, 185-186 
Erasmus, 202 
Essex, 276 

Etruscans, 78, 81, 82 
Euphrates, 26-29, 213, 357 



Europe, 5, 48, 62, 98, 110, 117, 118, 
120, 156, 236 
beginnings of modern, 110-124, 

146 
when America was discovered, 
188-207 
Europeans, why came to America, 
3-5 

Fairs, 173-174 

Family, origin of, 21-22 

Roman, 79 
Far East, the, 193, 194, 222, 234, 
339 

wealth of the, 208-212 

visited by Marco Polo, 214-217 
Farming, origin of, 11-14 

in Egypt and Babylonia, 29-30 

in early Rome, 78 

in later Rome, 90-91 

in early England, 138 

in the Middle Ages, 147, 159 

in England in the Middle Ages, 
168-170 

of the Indians, 239, 240 

in Spanish America, 259 

in the English colonies, 334-337 
Ferdinand, of Aragon, 190, 223, 229 
Feudal system, 149-151 

influence of crusades upon the, 
166-167 
Fire, discovery of, 10-11 
Firearms, invention of, 197 
Florence, 192, 197, 232 
Florida, 253, 256, 278, 319 
Food, 10-14, 21 

of the early Romans, 78 

in the Middle Ages, 208-209 
Fort Nassau, 321 
Forum (fo'rum), Roman, 93 
Fox, George, 327 
France, 86, 95, 118, 119, 120, 142, 

189, 193, 194, 201, 224 
Francis I, King of France, 189 
Franks, 114, 116 

kingdom of, 118-120 
Fray Marcos, 255 
French, 120, 124, 278 

language, 120-121 
Friends, see Quakers 
Frobisher (frob'ish-er), 275 
Frobisher (frob'ish-er). Bay, 268 

Gama, da (da ga'ma), Vasco, 221 

Gaul, 86, 116, 118, 128 

Geneva, 206 

Genoa (jen'6-a), 192, 193, 212, 216, 

218 
Geometry, 41 



INDEX 



369 



Georgia, beginning of, 319-321 
Germans, 2, 5. 128, 318, 326 

the early, 110-113 

overthrow Roman Empire, 113- 
116 

kingdoms of the early, 116-119 

mingle with Romans, 120-123 

our debt to the early, 123-124, 
359-360 

in Pennsylvania, 331-332 
Germany, 1, 2, 110, 119, 120, 148, 
191-192, 193, 196, 201, 320, 331 
Ghent (gent), 194 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 269-270 
Gilds, 173 
Gods, of Greece, 63, 67-68 

of the Germans, 112 
Golconda, 210 
"Golden Hind," 268-269 
Good Hope, Cape of, 221, 222, 233, 

236 
Gorges, 308 
Goths, 114 

migration of West, 115-116 

kingdom of East, 117-118 

in Spain, 116, 118 
Government, first, 36-38 

in Greece, 54 

in early Rome, 80 

of the Roman Empire, 94-95 

of early England, 141, 174-175 

in Spanish America, 259-260 

in the English colonies, 345-348 
Gracchus, Gaius (ga'yus), 92 
Gracchus, Tiberius, 91-92 
Granada, 190-191 
Great Charter, 176-177 
Grenville, Sir Richard, 273-274 
Greece, 2 

land of, 50-52 

manufacturing in, 54 

commerce in, 54 

government in, 54 

religion in, 57 

and Persia, 57-62 

art in, 62-67 

literature in, 67-72 

conquered by Macedon, 72 

conquered by Rome, 86 
Greeks, home of the, 50-52 

life of, 52-54 

manufactures of, 54 

trade of, 54 

government of, 54 

religion of, 57 

fight the Persians, 57-62 

art of the, 62-67 

literature of the, 67-72 

theater of the, 70 



teachers of the world, 72-73 

in Italy, 78 

influence the Romans, 86-89 

our debt to the, 358 
Gregory, 131 
Guinea (gin 'I), 220 
Gunpowder, discovery of, 196-197 
Gutenberg (goo'ten-berK), 199 
Guthrum, 136 

Hagen (ha'gen), 113 
Hakluyt (hak'loot), Richard, 270 
Hamilcar (ha-mil'kar) , 83 
Hamilton, Andrew, 352 
Hammurabi (ham'moo-ra'bfe), 38 
Hampton Roads, 281 
Hannibal (han'i-bal), 83-84 
Hanseatic League, 196 
Harold, 143 
Hartford, 309 
Hastings, battle of, 143 
Hawkins, John, 265, 273, 275 
Hayti, 228, 230, 242, 243, 244 
Hebrews, 28 

our debt to, 46-48, 358 
Hellespont, 59 
Henry II, King of England, 176 

invades Ireland, 180 
Henry VII, King of England, 179 
Henry, Prince, the Navigator, 219- 

221, 222 
Hera, 67 

Hercules (hur'kti-lez) , 69 
Heritage, ours from the past, 357- 

361 
Hermes, 63, 67 
Hero Tales, of the Greeks, 68-69 

of the early Germans, 113 
Higginson, Francis, quoted, 299-300 
Hindustan, 216 
Holbein, Hans, 203, 204 
Holland, 1, 110, 194, 274, 294, 339 
Holy Land, pilgrimages to, 162-163 

crusaders in the, 164-165 
Home life in the colonies, 340-345 
Homer, 53, 69 
Hooker, Thomas, 308-309 
Horace, 93 

Horatius (h6-ra'shl-us) , 81 
Houses, early, 14-15 

in Egypt and Babylonia, 35 

of the early Romans, 78-79 

later Roman, 89 

of the early English, 139-140 

in the colonies, 289, 297, 302, 317, 
319, 322, 325, 332, 334, 341-342 
Howard, 275, 276 
Hudson, Henry, 278-279, 321 
Hudson Bay, 268 



24 



370 



INDEX 



Hudson River, 278-279, 280, 321 
Huguenots (hu'ge-nots), 318, 326 
Hutchinson, Anne, 307-308 

Iliad (il'i-M), 69 

Inca, the, 251-252 

Incas, 251 

India, 27, 32, 73, 208, 209, 210, 212, 

216, 218, 221 
Indian Ocean, 221, 236 
Indians, 8, 111. 238-240 

enslaved in West Indies, 243 

life of, in the southwest, 255-257 

in Latin America, 258 

in the English colonies, 285, 310- 
311 330 
Inventions, 196-199 

firearms, 197 

the compass, 198 

the lens, 198 

the art of printing, 198-199 
lona, 133 
Ireland, 1, 2, 127, 133, 276, 331 

the English interfere in, 179-181 
Irish, 130 

conversion of, 133 
Irving, Washington, quoted, 322 
Isabella, of Castile, 190, 223, 224, 

229 
Isaiah (I-za'ya), 48 
Itahans, 78, 80, 120, 124 

language of the, 120-121 
Italy, 1, 2, 52, 95, 101, 191-193 

geography of, 76-78 

Alaric in, 115-116 

German kingdoms in, 117-118, 
120 

Revival of Learning in, 200-201 

Jamaica, 230, 242 

James I, King of England, 184, 279, 

286, 299 
James II, King of England, 326 
James River, 281, 282 
Jamestown, founded, 279-282, 283, 

285 
Jason, 69 
Jerusalem, 99, 101, 162, 163 

Christian kingdom of, 164 
Jesuits (jez'u-its), 207 
Jesus, 93, 162 

life of, 99-100 

teachings of, 100-101 

influence of, 359 
Jews, 99 
John, King, 176-177 

signs the Great Charter, 177 
Jury, the beginning of trial by, 174- 
176 



Kansas, 256 

Karnak (kar'nak), 43-44 

Kent, 132 

Kingsley, Charles, quoted, 273-274 

Knighthood, in the Middle Ages, 

152-155 
Kublai Khan (koo'bll kan'), 214-215, 
216 

Lane, Ralph, 270-271 

Language, beginning of, 22 

Las Casas (las ka'sas), 243 

Latin America, 258-260 

Latin language, 88, 95-96, 106, 120 

Laud, 299, 301 

Laws, the earliest, 38 

of Hammurabi, 38 

of the Romans, 80, 95 
Lens, the, 198 
Leonardo da Vinci (la'6-nar'do da 

ven'che), 202-203 
Leonidas (le-6n'i-das) , 59-60 
Lewis, son of Charlemagne, 120 
Lima, 267 
Lincoln, 141 
Lisbon, 219, 223 
Literature, beginnings, 22 

of Egypt and Babvlonia, 40 

of Greece, 67-72 

of Rome, 88, 93 

of England, 134, 137, 202 
Livy, 93 
Lombards, 118 
Lombardy, 118, 119 
London, 141, 143, 186, 196, 280 
London Company, 279-280, 283, 

286, 294 
Long Island, 324 
Lords, House of, 178-179 
Lothair, 120 
Louis XIV, 318 
Loyola (lo-yo'la), 206-207 
Luther, Martin, 205-206 
Lutherans, 206 

Macaulay, quoted, 275 
Macedon (mas'e-don), 72, 86 
Magellan (ma-jel'an) , Ferdinand, 233- 

236 
Magellan, Strait of, 235, 266, 268 
Magna Charta, see Great Charter 
Malacca, 212 
Manhattan Island, 321 
Manor, the, in England, 168-170 
Manufacturing, first, 15-21 

in Egypt and Babylonia, 30-31 

in Greece, 54 

in England in the Middle Ages, 
171-173 



INDEX 



371 



in the fifteenth century, 194-196 
in Asia, 210 

in the colonies, 337-339 
Marathon (mar'a-thon) , 59 
Maryland, 346 

the planting of, 286-289, 336 
toleration in, 288-289 
Mason, Captain John, 310 
Mason, proprietor of New Hamp- 
shire, 308 
Massachusetts, 346 

the Puritans settle in, 299-301 
life in the colony of, 30 1-303 j 
intolerance in, 303-309 
Massachusetts Bay Company, 300- 

301 
"Mayflower," 5, 294-295 
Mayflower Compact, 294 
Mediterranean Sea, 26, 32, 33, 34, 

52, 76, 83, 110, 116, 162, 358 
Men, early, 8-25 

Mexico, 236, 240, 244, 252, 255, 256,259 
Indians in, 240 

the Spanish conquest of, 244-250 
Mexico, City of, 245, 246, 247 

captured by Cortes, 249-250 
Mexico, Gulf of, 232, 244, 253, 255 
Michael Angelo (mi'kel-an'je-lo), 47, 

203-204 
Middle Ages, 146, 188, 200, 208, 
360-361 
life in the, 146-167 
the common people in the, 146-149 
towns in the, 148-149 
the nobles in the, 149-152 
knighthood in the, 152-155 
the church in the, 155-162 
monasteries in the, 157-162 
crusades of the, 162-167 
Miltiades (mil-ti'a-dez) , 59 
Minotaur (min'o-tor), 68 
Missions, Spanish, 259, 260 
Mississippi River, 253-255 
Modern History, 188, 200 
Mohammed (mo-ham'ed), 118-119 
Mohammedans (mo-ham 'ed-ans), 118- 

119, 162, 164, 189 
Monasteries, origin of, 107-108 
estabHshed in England, 134 
in the Middle Ages, 157-160 
Money, first, 34 
Mongols, 214 
Montezuma, 247, 252 

death of, 248-249 
Moors, in Spain, 189-191 

in Africa, 219 
More, Sir Thomas, 202 
MuriHo imvL-rlVo; Sp. pron. moo-rel'yo), 
204 



Narragansett Bay, 306, 308 
Narragansett Indians, 306, 310 
Narvaez (nar-va'eth) , 253, 255 
Nebuchadnezzar (neb'u-kad-nez'ar) , 

37 
Netherlands, 191, 264, 278 

rich manufacturing towns in the, 
194 
New Amsterdam, 321 
New England, colonized, 291-312 

commerce of, 339-340 
Newfoundland, 269, 270, 287, 339 
New Hampshire, origin of, 307-308 
New Haven, 311, 324 
New Jersey, origin of, 326-327 
New Mexico, 250, 255 
New Netherland, the Dutch colony 
of, 321-324 
becomes New York, 324-326 
Newport, 308 
Newport, Christopher, 279 
New Sweden, 324 

"New World," 230, 232, 233, 236, 
242 
geography of the, 236 
resources of the, 236-238 
people of the, 238-240 
African slavery introduced into 

the, 243 
Hfe in the, 334-355 
our work in, 361-363 
New York, 2, 224 

origin of, 326 
Newspapers, in the colonies, 352 
Nibelungs (ne'be-loongz), song of, 113 
Nicolls, Colonel, 324 
Nile, 26-27, 194, 212, 357 
"Nina" (nen'ya), 225 
Norman Conquest, of England, 141- 

144 
Normandy, 142-143 
North America, 232, 236, 262, 268, 

269 
North CaroHna, 271, 316, 317, 318- 

319 339 
Northmen, 134-135, 141-142 
North Sea, 128, 276 
Northwest passage to Cathay, 268, 

270 
Norway, 2, 135 
Novgorod, 196 ' 

Odysseus (6-dis'us), 69 
Odyssey (6d'i-si), 69 
Oglethorpe, James, 319-320 
Olympus, Mount, 67, 68 
Ordeals, 175 
Orient, see Far East 
Orinoco River, 230 



372 



INDEX 



Pacific Ocean, 235, 266 

Painting, Greek, 64 

Palestine, 99, 101, 162 

Palos, 225, 229 

Panama Canal, 260 

Panama, Isthmus of, 230, 232, 233, 

250, 266 
Pantheon (pan-the'6n) , 88 
ParHament, of England, 141, 346 

origin of, 177-179 

opposes the king, 313 
Parma, Duke of, 274 
Parthenon (par'th§-n6n), 65-67 
Patagonia, 235 
Patricians (pa-trlsh'anz) , 80 
Patrick, missionary to Ireland, 133 
Patroons, 322 
Paul, 101-102, 103 
Peking, 216 

Penn, William, 305, 327-333 
Pennsylvania, 3, 346, 349 

founded bv William Penn, 327- 
331 

races in, 331 

life in, 331-333 
Pequots, 310-311 
Pericles (per'i-klez) , 65-66 
Persecution, of the early Christians, 
102-105 

in the sixteenth century, 263-264 

of the Puritans, 293, 299 

in the colonies, 353 
Persia, 58 

part of Alexander's empire, 72-73 
Persian Gulf, 27, 210, 212, 216 
Persians, 37 

attack the Greeks, 57-62 

conquered by Alexander, 72-73 
Peru, 240, 244, 252, 259, 266 

Indians in, 240 

Spanish conquest of, 250-252 
Peruvians, 239, 240, 251 
Petrarch (pe'trark), 200-201 
Phidias (fid'I-as), 66-67 
Philadelphia, 2, 330 
Philip, of Macedon, 72 
Philip II, of Spain, 263-264, 271, 272 
Philippines (fil'l-plns), 235 
Phoenicians '(f e-nish'anz) , 28, 358 

commerce of, 32-34, 35 

alphabet of, 39 

visit Greece, 51, 53-54 

conquered by Alexander, 73 
Pilgrim Fathers, 293-299 
"Pinta" (pen'ta), 225 
Pizarro (pl-zar'ro), Francisco, con- 
quers Peru, 250-252 
Plants, first cultivated, 11-14 
Plato, 72 



Plebeians (pl^-be'yanz), 80 
Plymouth, England, 266, 268, 275, 

294 
Plymouth, Massachusetts, 295-299 
Po, 118 

Point Comfort, 281 
Polo, Marco, story of, 214-217 
Polycarp, 105 

Ponce de Leon (pon'tha da la-on'), 253 
Pope, the, 107, 156 
Porto Rico, 242 

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 307 
Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 308 
Portugal (por'tu-gal), 219-221, 234, 
256 339 

Columbus in, 222-223 
Portuguese (por'tu-gez), find a new 
route to India, 218-221 

colonize Brazil, 252 
Praxiteles (prak-sit'e-lez) , 63 
Pretty, Francis, quoted, 266-268 
Printing, the art of, 198-199 

in the colonies, 351-352 
Protestants, 206-207, 263-264 
Providence Plantation, 303, 306- 

307, 308 
Pueblos, 255, 257 
Punishments, in the colonies, 347- 

348 
Puritans, who they were, 291-295 

come to Massachusetts, 299-301 

some of them leave Massachusetts, 
303-312 

in the English Revolution, 313- 
314 
Pyramids, 44-46 
Pyrenees, 84, 118 

Quakers, 315, 327-331, 353 
Quebec, 278 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 270-271, 276, 

277 279 
Raphael' (raf'a-el), 203 
Red Sea, 212 
Reformation, Protestant, 205-207, 

263 
Religion, early, 24 

of the Egyptians and Babylonians, 

44-46 
of the Hebrews, 46-48 
of the Greeks, 57 
of the Romans, 79 
Christian, 100-101 
of the colonists, 352-354 
Rembrandt (rem'brant), 204-205 
Renaissance (ren'e-saNs'), 196-207, 

361 
Restoration, the, 313 



INDEX 



373 



Revival of Learning, 199-202 
Rheims (remz), cathedral at, 161 
Rhine, 110, 111, 114, 116, 118, 119, 

120 
Rhode Island, 346 

settled, 306-308 
Rhone, 116, 118 
Rio Grande, 250 
Roanoke Island, 271, 277 
Robin Hood, 185 
Robinson, John, 293 
Rollo, 141-142 
Romance languages, 120-121 
Roman Empire, 189 

extent of, 86 

origin of, 89-93 

peace in the, 94 

government of the, 94-95 

roads in the, 94-95 

Christianity in, 106-107 

fall of, 113-116 

eastern, 116, 217-218 

revived- by Charlemagne, 119 
Romans, early life of the, 78-80 

army of the, 81-82 

conquer Carthage, 83-86 

conquer the known world, 86 

learn from the Greeks, 86-89 

education of, 87 

their work for the world, 94-98 

law of the, 95 

persecute the Christians, 102-105 

and the Germans, 111 

our debt to the, 359 
Rome, 78, 99 

government of early, 80 

stories of early, 81 

conquers Italy, 82 

fights with Carthage, 83-86 

conquests of, 86 

education in, 87 

the republic becomes an empire, 
89-93 

Alaric in, 115-116 

plundered by Vandals, 116 
Roses, War of the, 179 
Rubens, 204-205 
Runnymede, 177 
Russia, 1, 148, 193 

St. Augustine, 256 
St. Francis, of Assisi, 160 
St. Lawrence River, 278 
St. Peter, 101, 107 

Church of, 203 
Salem, Massachusetts, 299, 303, 306, 

355 
Salem, New Jersey, 327 
San Francisco, 224 



San Salvador, 227 

Santa Fe, 250 

"Santa Maria" (san'ta ma-re'a), 225, 

228 
Sappho (saf'6), 69-70 
Salamis (sara-mIs) , 61-62 
Saracens, 162-163, 165 
Sardinia, 83 
Sargon (sar'gon), 37 
Saul, of Tarsus, see Paul. 
Savannah, 320 

Saxons, 114, 128-131, 134, 360 
Say brook, 311 
Scandinavians, 124 
Schools, in Athens, 56 

in the English colonies, 349-350 
Schuylkill River, 330 
Science, 23 

Scone, Stone of, 182, 183 
Scotch, 2, 124, 130, 326 
Scotch-Irish, 318 

in Pennsylvania, 331-332 
Scotland, 1, 127, 133, 179, 276, 318, 
327 

union with England, 182-184 
Scrooby, 293 
Sculpture, Greek, 63-65 
Separatists, 293 
Serfs, 147, 148, 156 

in England, 168-171 
Shakespeare (shak'sper), 127, 202, 291 
Ships, 5, 33, 60, 193 

of Columbus, 225 

built in the colonies, 338-339 
Sicily, 52, 83, 115, 194 
Sidon, 33 

Siegfried (seg'fred), 113 
Slaves, 33, 35, 91, 100, 258, 265, 

284-285 
Slavery, 79 

in the West Indies, 243 

in America, 258, 265 

in Virginia, 284-285 

in the colonies, 340 
Smith, Captain John, 281-282 
Social classes in the colonies, 340-341 
Socrates (sok'ra-tez), 71-72 
Solon, 56 

South America, 209, 230, 232, 234, 

236, 250, 252, 256, 265, 266, 268 

South Carolina, 316, 317, 318, 319, 

339 
South Sea, 233, 234 
Spain, 33, 83, 84, 95, 128, 194, 339- 

West Goths in, 116, 118 

Arabs in, 189-191 

government of, 191 

divides new lands with Portugal, 
234 



374 



INDEX 



and England, 262-265, 271-277 

rivals of, 278-279 
Spaniards, 120, 124, 240 

language of, 120-121 

win a great empire in America, 
242-260 

rivals of the English, 262-277 
Spanish America, 256-260 
Sparta, 50, 59, 60, 116 
Spartans, 54-55, 58, 59 
Spice Islands, 209, 236 
Spices, 208-209 
Squanto, 295 
Stephen, 102 
Stuyvesant (sti've-sant), Peter, 322- 

326 
Superstitions, 354-355 
Sweden, 2, 135, 196, 323 
Swedes, 323, 330 
Swiss, 318 

Syracuse (sir'a-kus'), 52 
Syria, 28, 86, 213, 218 

Tabriz, 216 
Tacitus (tas'i-tus), 111 
Tepees, 257 
Theaters, Greek, 70 

in Rome, 87 
Themistocles (the-mits'to-klez), 59, 

61 
Theodoric (the-6d'6-rik), 117-118 
Thermopylae (ther-mop'i-le), 59-60 
Theseus (the'sus), 68 
Thor, 112 

Tiber, 78, 81, 82, 104 
Tigris, 26-29, 213 
Tobacco, 283-284, 289, 318 
Toleration, in Maryland, 288-289 

of Roger Williams, 303, 305 

in Pennsylvania, 353 

growth of, 353 
Tools, earlv, 16-18 
Tours, 119 
Towns, in the Middle Ages, 148-149 

in England, 171-172 
Trade, growth of, 31-34 

promoted by the crusades, 166 

in England in the Middle Ages, 
173-174 

routes of, 192-196, 212-214 
Transportation, 19-20 
Travel, in the colonies, 345 
Trebizond (treb'i-zondO, 213 
T-ribe, 22, 36 
Turks, 163, 164, 272 

establish Turkish Empire at Con- 
stantinople, 217 

ruin eastern trade routes, 217-218 
Tyre, 33 



Ulfilas (ul'fi-las), 121 
Ulysses, see Odysseus 
United States, 256, 260, 276-277, 
347 

resources of, 236-238 

Spanish exploration in, 252-256 

Spanish claims in, 256 
Upland, 330 
Urban, Pope, preaches a crusade, 

163-164 
Utensils, earliest, 18-19 

Vandals, 116 

Van Dyke, 204-205 

Vane, Sir Henry, 307 

Vatican, 203^ 204 _ 

Velasquez (va-las'kath), 204 

Venezuela, 252 

Venice, 192, 193-194, 212, 216, 218 

Vera Cruz (va'ra kroos'), 245, 246, 

247, 265 
Vergil, 93, 200 
Vespucius (ves-pu'shus), Americus, 

232-233 
"Victoria," 236 

Vikings (vT'kings), see Northmen 
Virginia, 279-286, 314, 336, 339 

Starving Time in, 282 

settlers in, 282-283 

tobacco in, 283-284 

slavery in, 284-285 

House of Burgesses in, 285 

Indian attacks in, 285 

life in early, 285-286 

Wagner (vag'ner), 113 
Wales, 127, 179 

united with England, 181-182 
Wallace, William, 182-183 
Weapons, first, 16-17 
Welsh, 130 
Wessex, 130 

West Indies, 230, 236, 252, 256, 265, 
272 ■ 

settled by the Spaniards, 242-244 

sugar in the, 242, 259 

trade with the, 339-340 
West India Company, 321, 322 
West Jersey, 327 
Westminster Abbey, 182, 183 
Wethersfield, 309 
White, John, 271 
William, of Normandy, 142-143 
William the Silent, 264 
Williams, Roger, 303-307, 310 
Windsor, 309 

Winslow, Edward, 293, 296 
Winthrop, John, 300-301, 307, 338 
Winthrop, John, Jr., 311 



INDEX 



375 



Witchcraft, 354-355 
Woden, 112, 123 
Women, work of, 18-19 

in Greece, 55, 57 

among the early Germans, 112 
Writing, 38-39 
Wy cliff e (wik'llf), John, 185 



Xerxes (zurk'sez), 59, 61 

York, 141 

York, Duke of, 326, 329-330 

Yucatan, 240, 244 

Zenger, Peter, 352 
Zeus (zus), 67 



W 8 2 




A<=U. 







, < • o^ 







• •• 





.' A* 













-^o* 

!i°^ 




* -.•"•■..*< 








'^ ♦ • <! ♦ ^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

1 •o, '*^% <** Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 

\^ ^^' Treatment Date HAY - 2002 

2''v ; PreservationTechnologies 

CP *P^ A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

4iy ri- 111 Thomson Park Drive 
•3' 






\ 



Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 













.* * 





• <^ 










o " 

a 
e 

/ 







